What Happens in Oklahoma Part Two: The Parent Trap
by The-Lady-Isis
Summary: Sarah and Nicholas Wayne know three things for sure. Daddy loves Mommy. Mommy loves Daddy. Neither of them are willing to do anything about it! Can the twins gets Bruce and Diana to admit that finally, without risking their own lives?
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except Sarah and Nick, and DC people - please don't sue me. I'm making zilch moola. **

**A/N: Well, welcome to What Happens In Oklahoma Part II - The Parent Trap. Now this isn't purely my work, though it's my name at the top. At least forty percent of the credit has to go to Angel Queen, who is an absolute genius. This fic, its sequel, _Mercy_ and _Mortal Gods _could not exist with out her. She's co-written this fic with me, so if there are slight variations in writing styles et cetera, that's why.**

**This prologue is the work of Angel Queen, and sets the scene perfectly. **

**Enjoy! **

**Prologue**

"Are you saying you can't do it?"

"I'm not saying I can't do it. I'm saying you can't afford me."

"You'd be surprised at what we can afford. You're close to the family. You can get in, get the samples and get out again."

"Does it matter how I acquire the samples?"

"No. You have free rein, though the less violence you have to use the better."

"I see."

"Do we have an agreement?"

"Hardly. You've not told me your offer yet."

"Five million as a start; ten if they're viable, and your record expunged. Permanently. "

"…permanently?"

"Permanently."

"Done."

"Excellent. You know where to deliver the samples to."

"What do you need them for?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Curiosity."

"Curiosity killed the cat. You don't need to know why; I don't need to know how. Do we understand one another?"

"I think so."

"Good. Off you go."

---

**A/N: Just to whet your appetites. Review please!**


	2. Mother's Day

**A/N: Again, thank you to Angel Queen! If you've read ****_Sushi Ocean_, then you'll have already met Sarah, but now it's time to meet Nick as well :) Enjoy! **

**Chapter One - Mother's Day**

"Shhhhhh!"

"I didn't say anything!"

"Well don't."

"Your 'shush' will have already woken her up!"

"You don't know that, Nicky, so be quiet!"

Nick looked longingly at the still-warm bed his sister had just dragged him out of. Then he frowned at the grey dawn outside. "Don't see why we have to be up this early anyway – the sun's not even up yet!"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "We've been through this! Mommy gets up _really _early, and if we wanna give her a nice surprise breakfast then so do we! And Daddy will be on his way already, so –"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"Okay then." Still half-asleep, he let Sarah lead him down the stairs, tiptoeing as quietly as possible past Mommy's bedroom. The plan was to let Daddy in through the backdoor, and he'd have all the groceries they needed to make Mommy's favourite breakfast foods. Though thinking about it…

"Uh, Sarah?"

"Yes?"

"How do we get to the keys for the backdoor?" he asked. "Mom keeps them on the top shelf."

She flashed him a grin and a half-shrug. "That's easy. I'll stand on your shoulders."

To Nick, this seemed anything but easy. "What if you fall?" he demanded.

"I won't," she replied with great assurance.

"Gravity, Sarah! Unless you're going to defy Newton's third law, there's no way –"

She frowned, stopping in the hallway. "That's not Newton's third law, Nicky."

"Yes it is!" he insisted.

"No it isn't!"

"Is!"

"Is not!" she said crossly. She planted her hands on her hips, and Nick recognised the lecture pose. Mom did the same thing. "Newton's third law: Every action has an opposite and equal reaction."

"Oh." He frowned. "Well what's the one about gravity?"

"Never mind that, we're going to run out of time!" she said, grabbing his pyjama sleeve and yanking him down the hallway again. "Come on!"

When they got to the kitchen, Sarah looked up at the clock. Five-thirty a.m. Daddy would be here in a few minutes. She pushed Nicky over to the counter and then dragged the chair behind him, standing on it. "Now, when I put my foot on your shoulder, grab –"

There was a soft knock at the backdoor, and Sarah jumped down from the chair and then moved quietly to the door. "Daddy?" she asked quietly.

"No, it's the boogie man," his amused voice answered through the wood.

"Daddy!" she mock-scolded.

Nick leaned forward. "Just a minute, Dad, we have to get the key."

"Nick, I have –"

"It won't take long, Daddy," Sarah assured. "Don't worry, we have a plan."

Neither of them paid any attention to the apprehension in Bruce's voice. "Kids, I don't think –"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Jeez, Daddy, just wait a second!" Before he could answer, she pushed her brother back over to the counter, standing on the chair just behind him and planting her hands firmly on his head. "Okay, now when I put my foot on your shoulder, you grab my ankle okay? And you _can't _let go."

"Got it."

"Okay." She put a foot on his shoulder; he gripped it. "Got me?"

"Yup."

"Okay…" She took a deep breath and stepped up, planting both her feet on her brother's shoulders. "Yes, I'm up!"

"Hurry up, you're heavy!"

"I am _not_!"

"Sarah!"

"Okay, okay." She still couldn't quite see the top shelf, but she could reach it, so leant forward, groping around for the keys.

"Sarah, stop moving so quickly!" Nick hissed from beneath her.

"Well it might help if you stopped squirming," she snapped quietly back.

"_I'm _squirming?" he repeated. "You're the one who's –"

At the sound of the backdoor creaking quietly open, both of them jumped around to see their father coming in. Well Nick looked around. Sarah swayed and grabbed at the cupboards. "Daddy! How did you get –"

Sarah cut off when her dad dropped the groceries on the counter before striding over to them quickly and lifting her off Nicky's shoulders. He put her down, his expression neither pleased nor impressed. "Not a good idea, kids," he said lowly, mainly speaking to Sarah. "If you fell you could really hurt yourself, not to mention break your brother's neck on the way down –"

Nick shot a triumphant look at his twin. "Told you. Newton's third law."

"That is _not_ –" She broke off with a sigh of exasperation, then looked up to her father with pleading eyes. "Daddy, tell Nicky to stop arguing physics with me!"

"I'm not arguing physics with you, I'm just –"

"_Both _of you stop arguing – physics or anything else," Daddy quelled.

They did, reluctantly, and then both received hugs. Sarah leaned back, looked at her father critically. "You look tired, Daddy."

He bent down and kissed the tip of her nose. "Good morning to you too, sweetie."

"Humph."

Nick was already at the bag of groceries that Bruce had put on the counter. "Dad!" he complained. "You didn't get any blueberries! How are we supposed to make Mom blueberry pancakes without –"

"They're at the bottom, Nick."

Nick dug down a little deeper. "Ew, they're all squished!"

"Daddy!" Sarah admonished. "You're supposed to put the heaviest stuff at the _bottom _of the bag!"

"Well how was I supposed to – Nick, don't do that," he added to her brother, who'd just wiped his purple-stained fingers on his pyjamas.

Nick just shrugged and continued to take items out and place them on the counter. Sarah – naturally – had a checklist ready; folded neatly into her pyjama pocket. "Bacon?"

"Yup."

"Eggs?"

"Yup."

"Orange juice?"

"Uh… yep."

"Milk?"

"We already have a gallon in the fridge."

"Flour."

"Yes," Bruce sighed. "Sarah, I remembered everything."

"No harm in checking though, Daddy," she pointed out. "And... pain au chocolat."

Nick looked. "Yup."

Sarah ticked off the last item with a smile. "Okay, now you have everything."

He smirked. "So I'm off probation?"

"Yup," she confirmed. "Okay, first we have to..."

"...make the pancakes," Nick finished.

"Right, so, Daddy, can you get the cookbook? It's right on the top shelf."

"Yes, ma'am."

The sound of coughing drew both their attention: Nick had torn open the bag of flour. Literally. Right down the middle, thus covering himself and that corner of the kitchen with white powder. He looked immediately decades older.

Sarah giggled while her dad glowered. "Good start," he muttered. "Do we have any more flour?"

"I think so," Nick said. "I'll get it –"

Sarah put a hand on his chest, still fighting laughter. "Maybe I should get it, Nicky."

He glanced down at himself. "Maybe you should."

While his dad's back was turned and as Sarah bent down to the get extra flour, Nicky decided the best start to making Mommy's Mother's Day breakfast was to dump whatever flour wasn't covering him on top of his sister. To Sarah's credit, she almost shrieked, but held it in. The whole point of getting up at the crack of dawn was _not _to wake Mommy.

Still, she wasn't about to let that go unpunished. Hence why, a few minutes later, Nicky found a raw egg being cracked on top of his head. Bruce was not impressed, but it wasn't anything even his normally terrifying glares could stop. Well, Nicky found them terrifying, but Daddy didn't really scare Sarah. He never stayed mad at her long anyway.

Needless to say, the silent feud between the twins went on until Bruce physically separated them, putting Sarah on one side the kitchen and Nick on the other. It didn't stop them pelting each other with fruit when he wasn't looking. By the time they got onto the pancakes, things had degenerated to a fully-fledged batter fight, with right now a bit more pancake batter ending up on Sarah's nose. Before she could protest – and possibly whack her brother with a nearby spatula – the phone rang. Her eyes widened and she lunged for it, lest it wake Mommy up before they were ready for her.

"Hello, Prince residence; Sarah speaking," she recited into it, just as Mommy had taught her and Nicky to when they answered.

_"Miss Sarah? This is Alfred."_

Sarah grinned. "Good morning, Alfred!"

_"And to you, dear. I called to ask your mother if she has seen your father this morning. Is she awake?"_

She giggled and shook her head. "No, but don't worry. Daddy's right here with me and Nicky. We're making breakfast for Mommy since it's Mother's Day," she explained.

There was a definite pause on the other end of the phone line. _"Your father is helping you cook... breakfast?"_

"Yep! Though, Nicky keeps hitting me with the pancake mix," she complained, scrunching her nose at her brother.

"She started it, Alfred!" Nicky called from his spot at the table, surrounded by blueberries.

_"Goodness me," _Sarah heard Alfred mutter. _"Miss Sarah, could you please turn the speaker phone on? I need to speak to all three of you."_

Sarah shrugged. "Sure, Alfred." She then reached up, pressed the appropriate buttons, just like Mommy had taught her, and put the phone back on its base.

_"Master Bruce,"_ Alfred said, his tone stern, _"Master Nick, and Miss Sarah, I want all three of you to stop what you are doing. Master Bruce, turn off all parts of the stove that you have on and step away from it. Immediately."_ A moment later, the phone went dead.

Sarah blinked and looked at her father. Much to her surprise, he had a faintly guilty look on his face, like Nicky did when Mommy caught them trying to sneak another cookie. "What's wrong with Alfred, Daddy?" she asked.

Daddy didn't answer, though. He just shook his head and kept muttering, "One time, it was _one time,_ Alfred." Then he smiled at her. "It looks like Alfred's going to take over, sweetheart."

"That's probably good," Nicky put in. "We weren't getting anything done, and Mommy will wake up soon."

Sarah nodded, but looked at the few items of breakfast they had managed to create. "Well we should at least take Mommy _something_," she said.

Bruce poured some coffee into a cup, and then flipped over a misshapen pancake. It was burnt on the bottom. "Well maybe not these." He pushed the cup toward Nicky. "Take her this."

Sarah opened the fridge and poured out some orange juice into a glass. "We have the card too, and her presents."

"What did you get her?" Bruce asked.

"We saved up our allowances – I got her an ergonomic keyboard for her writing."

"And I got her a really pretty pen," Nicky said. "Sometimes she writes on paper instead of her computer."

Daddy nodded, looking impressed. "Good ideas." He smiled. "She'll love them. Why don't you two go wake her, and I'll let Alfred in when he gets here."

After collecting their gifts from their room, Nicky led the way into Mommy's room, and opened the curtains while Sarah put the drinks and gifts down on the nightstand. At the sunlight suddenly flooding the room, Diana opened her eyes with a smile already on her face. To Sarah, and not for the first time, she looked like the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Morning, Mommy," she murmured with unconscious reverence.

"Good morning, my little star."

"Happy Mother's Day, Mom!" Nicky chorused.

"And good morning to you too, little sun," she smiled.

They clambered into bed with her, one on each side. "We got up early to make you breakfast," Nicky explained, "but we kinda... maybe made a mess –"

Suddenly Mommy looked stern. "How big of a mess?"

"No, it's okay, because Alfred's coming over to help fix it –"

"Alfred has enough to do at the manor without you adding to his burdens."

"But we didn't ask him to come, Mommy," Sarah replied. "When he found out Daddy was here and helping us cook -"

"Your father is here?"

At the slightly nervous, slightly excited tone of Mommy's voice, the twins exchanged a slightly gleeful look. This had been another reason to ask for Daddy's help – it would mean that they could have a nice family breakfast, with their parents sitting next to each other, being nice to each other, maybe beginning to...

"Yup," Nick answered cheerfully. "He's downstairs letting Alfred in when he gets here."

"Oh I see." She cleared her throat and made to get out of bed. "Well, why don't you two –"

They grabbed one arm each and pulled her back down. "No, Mommy, you haven't opened your presents yet!"

"Haven't I?" She sat back down and folded her hands expectantly.

Sarah rolled her eyes slightly, but her delight outweighed her exasperation. Both Mommy and Daddy did that whenever the other one was mentioned – went really scatter-brained. Which, considering that they were the smartest people Sarah knew, was very odd. Still, first things first: presents.

She leaned over to the nightstand and picked them up. "That one is from Nicky, and this is mine –"

Nicky took the opportunity to thrust his package into Mommy's hands. "But open mine first."

"Why should she open yours first, mine's better –"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

Mommy put her hands up and glared at both of them. "Children, stop this at once!"

They both fell silent, though they didn't stop glaring daggers at each other. Mommy carried on. "Now both of you go and get dressed. I have no idea what's in your hair, Nicholas, or just what you have all down your front, Sarah, but whatever it is, I'll not have it in my bed."

Ah. The twins looked down at themselves, seeing the evidence of their impromptu food-fight all over their clothes. "Oops."

Nicky looked hopefully up at Mommy. "Can we go once you've opened the presents?"

"No," she said with a smile. "Because this way we'll avoid arguments and you won't know which present I opened first."

_Damn. Foxed. _

Sarah sighed. "Fine..."

Feeling as though they'd been a little cheated, the twins traipsed down the hallway to their bedroom. It didn't take long for them to dress and go back downstairs again, to find Alfred in the kitchen already, somehow with at least seventy percent of the breakfast already made.

"Good morning, Miss Sarah, Master Nick."

"Morning, Alfred," they chorused.

Sarah looked around. "Where's Daddy?"

"In the dining room," he explained. "Would you mind very much helping him set the table, children?"

"Sure, Alfred," Nick said, accepting the bundle of cutlery Alfred handed him. Sarah collected her own stack of plates from the Englishman and went into the dining room. They hardly ever used this room – just for Mother's Day, her and Nicky's birthday, and Thanksgiving. Christmas was always spent up at the manor with Daddy.

As they came in, it was to see their father straightening the table cloth, making sure it was even on all sides. He even had a tape-measure to make sure it was the same everywhere – though where he'd gotten a tape-measure from, Sarah had no idea. Both twins stopped in the doorway and looked quizzically at him before Nick spoke.

"Dad... what are you _doing_?" His tone made it sound as though Daddy was dancing the foxtrot with an alien. At the image, Sarah had to suppress a giggle.

Daddy looked up. "Just making sure the table looks nice for your mother."

"Uh huh."

Daddy narrowed his eyes at their stereo scorn. "You can lay the table now."

They set the knives and forks down, along with the plates, and the table was finished with a rosebud in a stem glass, set in the centre of the tablecloth. Bruce turned to them. "Okay, kids, I'll see you tonight."

Since Mommy and Daddy didn't live together, Sarah and Nicky spent one week at the gate-house and one at the manor. Both of the houses were nice, but neither of them were really home. They had the people they loved; Mommy, Alfred, Daddy, Tim, and occasionally Dick, but when they were all in two different places it didn't really work – not when there was no reason for it to be that way.

The whole point of today was that they actually spent the whole day as a family. Daddy going back the manor was _not _in the plan – and for once Sarah didn't have a Plan B.

Luckily, Nicky seemed to: delay tactics. "No, Dad, you have to stay! You helped with breakfast and we already told Mom you were here!"

Sarah caught on. "Yeah, Daddy, she'll be really disappointed if you don't stay –"

There was a sound from the hallway, and she knew it was Mommy coming down the stairs. A few seconds later she opened the door to the dining room.

Sarah noticed Daddy seemed to have gone speechless. She had to admit, Mommy looked very pretty today. She had on a navy blue sweater-dress which fitted her perfectly, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail with a few curly strands around her face. Sarah wasn't looking forward to growing up, but if she had to... she hoped that she was going to look like Mommy. Except not with the black hair. Sarah liked her hair just fine. It was just like Grandma Hippolyta's and Grandma Martha's.

Mommy stopped in front of them. "Hello, Bruce," she smiled.

He cleared his throat. "Diana. Happy Mother's Day."

"Thank you." She sniffed. "I'm assuming the delicious smell is breakfast?"

"Yup!" Nicky said. "We tried to make it ourselves, but then when Alfred called, he got mad when Sarah told him Dad was helping..." He trailed off and looked up at Bruce. "Actually, why did he get mad, Dad?"

Was that a hint of pink around his cheeks? "Let's sit down, shall we?"

Once Alfred had served the breakfast, they sat down and ate together. Exactly as a family should – with Sarah and Nicky bickering over the bits in the orange juice, or who got the last blueberry pancake.

"I'm a boy, I need more food than you do!"

"Statistically," Sarah shot back in a snooty, know-it-all tone that she knew would really irritate her twin, "at this age we need the same amount of –"

That argument was solved when their father picked it up and put it on Mommy's plate. Both twins goggled at him. Diana chuckled. "Thank you, Bruce."

"Anytime," he said, offering a cheeky grin to Sarah's scowl. "Coffee?"

She nodded. "Thank you."

"So how's the book coming?" he asked, finishing off his pain au chocolat.

"Oh fine," she said dismissively, "it's Perseus; it pretty much writes itself. It's the other one I'm having trouble with."

"Other one?"

"Yes." She coloured slightly. "I decided to take your advice, and try original fiction as well as just the Greek myths. Though I'm sticking to the myth theme."

"Sounds great – well, if you're writing it, then I'm sure it will be great. From which culture?"

"I was thinking I might try my hand at Arthurian literature," she commented. "I did wonder if Jason might –"

"Who's Jason, Mommy?" Sarah asked, a slight frown on her face.

She didn't like it when Mommy started talking about other men, and it didn't seem right when Daddy was right there. Nicky felt exactly the same, and it had been he who noticed that Mom only ever blushed when Dad was around. As she was doing now, the twins noted. She'd had a few dates, over the years, but no matter how many compliments they'd paid her, Mom never blushed. All Dad had to say was that she was a good writer, and she was quite an interesting shade of pink.

Their parents exchanged a look. "Jason's an old friend of Daddy's, little star. A scholar."

"Oh. Okay."

Bruce and Diana went back to talking about some of the more obscure Arthurian characters in great detail, leaving the twins to marvel at the complexity and utter simplicity of the relationship between their parents.

Nicky looked at her with one eyebrow raised. _Why aren't they together?_

Sarah shrugged, then nodded at her mother. _I think Mommy. Should we ask her?_

Nicky pursed his lips in thought, then shook his head. _Not yet_. Then his gaze darted to Dad and back to Mom again before settling on Sarah. _Do you think we could...?_

A wicked grin spread across Sarah's face as she nodded vigorously. A blind man on a galloping horse could see how their parents felt about each other. Now they just had to help them see that.

The plan silently hatched, the twins returned to eating their delicious breakfast diligently. Once they were finished, Alfred came in and took the plates away. Mommy looked at them over the rim of her coffee cup.

"Why don't you two help Alfred with the dishes, hmm?"

They got up and went into the kitchen – then, inevitably, spent ten minutes trying to convince Alfred to let them help. Eventually Sarah put her hands on her hips, pointing out that Alfred worked for Daddy, not Mommy, and that he didn't have to. Alfred finally relented with a gentle smile that told the twins he was only humouring them, and poured himself a cup of tea.

There wasn't that much washing up to be done, and once the last skillet had been put in the drying rack, Nicky wiped his hands. "Think Mom and Dad would play baseball if we asked them?"

Sarah supported anything that got Daddy to stay longer, so she nodded. "I'll get the mitt and ball, you get the bat."

They both dashed toward the door, then remembered something in unison, and dashed back again to hug Alfred. "Thanks for everything, Alfred."

He putted their backs awkwardly. "You're quite welcome, children. Now I'll see you later tonight."

They beamed, and left the kitchen again. Alfred smiled, and then set about re-doing the washing up.

Upstairs, Sarah was, typically, ready before Nicky, who still couldn't find the baseball bat. Sarah let out a loud, exasperated sigh. "I'll find it!" he assured, recognising the signs of Sarah pretending she was Mom again. "There's only... seven more places it could be."

"Fine..." she said. "Just hurry up, okay? I'm going to get Mommy and Daddy."

Baseball mitt in hand, she slid it on, throwing up the ball and catching it again as she went down the stairs. Alfred had gone back to the manor by now, and she could hear her parents in the kitchen.

Her heart sank as she realised they were arguing.

"...six years, Diana, I don't see what more –"

"Well you wouldn't, would you?" her mother snapped quietly back. "I've told you before, I'm just not –"

"Not ready?" he asked. "How much more time do you _need_?"

From what she could see of her mother's face, it was frustrated and confused. "It's not a question of _time_, Bruce, I just... I'm afraid to change things from the way they are now. The kids are fine, we get on well..."

"'Fine' isn't happy, Diana." Daddy's voice had gone from angry to sad. Sarah hated it when he got sad – it was why everything she knew about Granddad Thomas and Grandma Martha came from Alfred, and not Daddy. She'd tried to talk about them with Daddy once, but stopped once she saw how heartbroken he looked. She could hear that same heartbreak in his tone as he asked, "Can you honestly tell me you don't get lonely?"

That seemed to surprise Diana, since she didn't say anything for a while. "You do?" she finally questioned, not sounding like she believed it.

Sarah frowned. It was true, Daddy had more people around him than anyone else she knew, but she also knew that none of them were really his friends. She didn't think there was one person he told everything to – and he needed someone like that. She had Nicky, she knew Uncle Dick and Auntie Barbara were really close. Alfred and Dr Leslie, the same. Uncle John and Auntie Shay. Uncle Clark and Auntie Lois.

"Christ, Diana, do you even need to ask? I don't have _you_, how could I not get lonely?"

"You don't exactly seem to be short on company," Diana commented coolly.

Sarah gasped – how could she be so _mean_ to Daddy? Her free hand came up to her mouth.

Unfortunately for her, it was too late to muffle the sound and both parents heard her. Bruce turned around, pulling the door fully open. Sarah refused to look down, defiant and trying not to cry. "Why're you guys fighting?" she asked.

"We're not fighting, little star, we just –"

"I know what a fight sounds like, Mommy!" she protested, glaring. "Why do you have to fight when we were having such a good day? Why can't you just be like all the other mommies and daddies and be happy? Why can't you just admit that you're _both _lonely?"

Diana did not take kindly to being lectured by her six-year-old daughter. "Sarah, that's enough," she said sharply. "Whatever your father and I have to say to each other is private, not –"

"I don't care!" Sarah yelled, tears threatening now. "You're both being totally stupid!"

With that, she let the baseball and mitt drop to the floor, pushed past her mother and darted out the backdoor, heedless of what was said behind her. "Sarah Persephone Wayne, you get back here, young lady!"

"Oh because yelling at her is going to help!"

"Damn it, Bruce, I don't..."

Sarah clapped her hands over her ears as she finally burst into tears, and ran across the grounds from the house, heading in the direction of the manor. About halfway there stood a line of half a dozen old oak trees, the last but one her favourite place to go when she was upset at one or both of her parents. Reaching the bottom, she grabbed hold of a low branch and started to climb.

* * *

Nick had heard his parents starting to argue, and knew that his and Sarah's plans for a good day as a family were ruined. He had retreated to his and Sarah's room, hoping it would all blow over, but when he looked out the window, he saw his sister running away from the house. He sighed. He knew where she was going. She always went there when she was sad.

Getting out of the house wasn't that difficult. Mom and Dad were still arguing, though now about Sarah, and thus didn't even notice him slipping by Mommy's study. He closed the door behind him and ran toward the old oak trees. It didn't take him long to get there, but Nick's eyes widened when he spotted his sister. Sarah liked to climb the trees, but she didn't go very high unless Mommy or Daddy or Uncle Dick or some other adult was with them. That was the rule. No higher than the third branch if they were alone. Sarah was on the seventh branch.

"Sarah!" he called. "Come down!"

"No!" Her voice was thick with anger and tears. _Great_. Looking up, Nick took a deep breath and started to climb.

"Come on, Sarah," he said, "we're going to get in trouble as it is."

"No. Mommy and Daddy are being stupid."

Nick rolled his eyes. Being 'stupid' was probably the biggest crime you could commit in Sarah's eyes. "And you're not?" he asked as he got up to the seventh branch. "We're not supposed to go this high." He glanced down. The ground was _awfully_ far away...

"Why can't they see it, Nicky?" she asked, looking out over the field. "They love each other. Always have. They wouldn't have had us if they didn't. I don't care what those newspapers say. Daddy's not a bad person."

"No, he's not. Mommy's not either," Nick agreed. "But we're not going to get anything done sitting up here except get grounded if they catch us. Come on, let's go up to the Manor. Alfred might have ice cream." Though, inwardly, Nick doubted it. They'd just had breakfast not too long ago. Alfred wasn't going to give them sweets so early. Still, it might be enough to get his sister out of the tree.

She shook her head. "No," she said stubbornly. "Not until Daddy and Mommy stop being stupid."

"Sarah!" He grabbed her hand and tugged on it insistently.

"No!" She yanked her hand back and pushed him a little for good measure.

Nick reacted instinctively, just like he always had. When Sarah pushed him, he retaliated and shoved her back. That's how it always worked. His hands hit her shoulders before he could remember just where they were.

There was also something else. They were both good at climbing trees. They knew how to sit on the branches so that they wouldn't fall. Nick didn't think Sarah had forgotten that, no matter how mad at Mommy and Daddy she was.

So when his hands connected with her and she flew off the branch like she'd jumped, Nick nearly had a heart attack. He heard her let out a terrified scream and he _lunged_ after her –

* * *

**A/N: Review please! **


	3. Old Faces

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I'm happy people have been looking forward to this! **

**Chapter Two - Old Faces**

Everything happened a little in slow motion. She shoved him. He shoved back, only he shoved _hard_. Harder than he ever had before in their rare fights, hard enough to hurt her shoulders and move her backwards. Of course, on a perch this narrow, there wasn't really anywhere else to go. Backwards anyway.

There was plenty of room if she wanted to go downwards, though. Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. She didn't _want _to go down, but Nicky's hands were really quite insistent.

So, Sarah fell. A shocked cry escaped her lips, and she saw the same expression crossed Nicky's face, but then he dove after her, into _mid-air_. Sarah screwed up her eyes and waited for –

The jolt when she stopped wasn't like what she expected. There wasn't a sharp pain, followed by darkness. There wasn't even the cracking sound of her bones breaking. In fact, there was very little pain at all. After about ten seconds of more not-falling, Sarah cracked open her eyes. She found herself looking into her brother's terrified face.

"N-Nicky?"

"Sarah, are you ok?" he asked anxiously.

She nodded numbly. "Y-you caught me," she said. "How did you –" She stopped, then, because she noticed she'd never actually fallen further than the fifth branch, and yet Nicky wasn't in the tree either. _What...? _

She looked down. Well, there was the ground, and Nicky's feet were a good fifteen feet above it. In thin air. "_Nicky_," she started, "how are you _doing _that?"

"I-I don't know," he answered nervously.

"Well... um... can you stop?"

"Um... not sure," he confessed.

"Try," she said, holding onto him a bit tighter.

Slowly, they drifted down until Nicky landed on the ground. Neither of them moved for several seconds, only stared at each other. "Um, put me down?"

He did, and she checked his feet. They were firmly on the ground. "Sarah, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to push you out of the tree, I don't even know how I –"

"I think I might," she whispered. "Nicky... you flew. A-and you pushed me _way _harder than you have before..."

"So... am I a... superhero?" he asked, unable to prevent his voice from peaking in excitement just a little bit.

Sarah rolled her eyes, but couldn't honestly say 'no'. "Well... maybe not yet," she said, "but where did it come from? I mean, meta powers don't just –"

"Meta?"

"Oh, it's the proper name for superpowers," she told him. She wasn't about to tell him that she'd found that information on Wikipedia. "But the point is they don't just... _appear_..."

Sarah may have been the genius, but Nicky was by no means stupid. "But, Sarah, if they don't just _appear_..." He trailed off with a nervous laugh, but she knew what he was thinking, and her eyes widened to the size of his.

"Then Mommy or Daddy... is a superhero. And if you can..." she swallowed, "fly and are super-strong..."

"Oh my God," Nicky whispered. "Daddy's Superman!"

"Don't be stupid, of course he's not," Sarah snapped, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "Superman's in Metropolis."

"Oh."

Though that didn't really mean anything, she reflected – Superman could move at super-speed too, so who was to say he couldn't live in Gotham? _No, it's ridiculous, _she thought firmly. There was no way Daddy was Superman. It was just... _wrong_. "Besides, there are plenty of other heroes in the Justice League, who says they're not one of them?"

"Well who else is super-strong and can fly?"

"Um... Wonder Woman?" she supplied in a tiny voice.

Nicky's mouth dropped. There was absolutely no reason Mommy couldn't be Wonder Woman – and now that she thought about it... take away the glasses and... "Oh Hera."

Nicky looked more than a little freaked out. "That's… that's what Mom always says."

"Mommy's Wonder Woman," Sarah whispered through numb lips.

"D'you think Daddy knows?"

"Maybe..." Sarah said, no longer listening. _Mommy_ was _Wonder Woman_? In that case how could Daddy _not _know? He wasn't stupid; in fact he was one of the smartest men Sarah knew of, so he must have known... but then Daddy was always pretending he didn't know things when he did... _Could _he be Superman? Maybe she was wrong – the gossip magazines always made it seem like Superman and Wonder Woman were… She shook her head viciously. No! There was no way Daddy was Superman. It was a horrible idea.

"No," she said firmly. "Daddy isn't Superman, but we're right, Nicky, I know we are. Mommy's..."

"Wonder Woman," he completed. "Should we tell her?"

"I don't know," Sarah said, biting her lip.

"I want to," he said, grin coming back. "Because this is so _cool_! I mean, my mom's _Wonder Woman_ – and I can fly, Sarah, I wanna learn what else I can do to, and Mommy could teach me loads –"

"Yeah, but, Nicky, why hasn't she told us already? You know Mommy – she hates secrets. Why would she keep them from us?"

He shrugged. "Because she had to."

"_Exactly_," she pointed out. "If she had to, then it's to protect us."

He laughed. "She's Wonder Woman, Sarah, I don't think she's going to have a hard job doing that."

"Nicky, don't you ever watch the news?"

Her twin's blank look was all the answer she needed.

She sighed. "Being a member of the Justice League is _dangerous_," she emphasised. "Remember how Mommy gets weird bruises sometimes?"

Nick frowned – now that he thought about it... Ever since he could remember, Mom had had odd injuries. Because they'd always been there, they'd basically stopped noticing them. Still, it was true – just last week Mommy had three deep scratches on her forearm. A little guilt welled up inside Nick; he hadn't even asked about them.

"So you think Mommy won't be happy I have her powers?"

"I don't think so," Sarah said sadly. "Until you know how to use them you're just going to worry her more."

Nicky's mouth twisted. "So what do we do?"

She smiled. It was still 'we'. Even though she didn't have those powers, they were still a 'we'. "We just have to practice," she encouraged. "In secret, though, because if we let _anyone_ know then we could end up in trouble."

He nodded. "Okay." For a second, neither of them said anything. Then Nicky asked tentatively, "I don't have to jump out of more trees though do I?"

She giggled and took his hand. "Not today. Come on, let's go see if Mommy and Daddy have stopped fighting."

On the way there, he thought of something else. "Hey, Sarah? What do we do if they find out before we're ready?"

She sent him a look. "You mean what do we do when Alfred finds out?"

He laughed – it was true. Mommy and Daddy were smart, but Alfred was... supernatural. No question he was going to be the first person to find out. It was just a matter of when he did so. "So?"

She bit her lip. She couldn't imagine Alfred would be angry... as long as they didn't make a mess. "I don't think he'll tell Mommy or Daddy if we ask him not to. But for now that doesn't matter. What matters is seeing what else you can do. I'll research what other powers Wonder – Mommy," she corrected, eyes still wide at the thought, "has. I just can't believe that Mommy is an Amazon. It kinda makes sense – she's always really for equality and... stuff," she finished lamely.

"So... if Mom is an Amazon... What about Grandma?"

Sarah's eyes widened. Oh Hera – Mommy wasn't just an Amazon, she was a _princess_, so Grandma Hippolyta was... "She's the queen," she whispered. "We're… We're _royalty_."

At this, Nicky burst out laughing. "Yeah, okay, Sarah, whatever."

"No, she has to be! Think about it – Wonder Woman is the _princess _of the Amazons, and if Grandma Hippolyta is her mom, then –"

He rolled his eyes. "Still not buying it, Sarah."

"Fine, then I'll prove it to you!" She grabbed his hand and marched back to the house, intent on booting up her laptop and showing him the Wikipedia page that would prove her right. Nicky didn't have much choice about being dragged along behind her. He sighed. Maybe she was right – his sister certainly had the attitude of a princess.

Though, he thought, that could be just because Daddy treated her like one.

When they got home, though, Sarah's thoughts of her computer were forced out of her brain – they had visitors. She stopped in the doorway, a huge grin on her face. Nick, not expecting the sudden halt, crashed into her back. "Ow, Sarah –"

"Shut _up_, Nicky, look!"

Nick looked, and also grinned. "Auntie Shay!"

Their redheaded godmother opened her arms. "C'mere, kiddos!"

They both rushed to embrace her, Sarah giggling as feathers tickled her cheek. "Are Rex and Kyra here?"

"Yup," she said. "In the kitchen with _their _auntie."

Sarah let out a soft cheer. Kyra had been her best friend since she could remember, and the two girls had known one another since birth as their mothers were so close. The Stewart twins had been born a little over a year after her and Nicky, and Mommy was Rex's godmother just as Auntie Shay was Nicky's.

"How come you're here, Auntie Shay?" Nicky asked.

"Well it's Mothers Day, so I did what I wanted to do – stop my kids moaning that they wanted to see you two."

After another minute of hugging her brother's godmother, Sarah pulled away and moved into the kitchen – and then was promptly jumped on by her best friend. She hugged back, then let go, hugging Rex too. He almost hugged back, but then Nicky came in yelling the word, "Cooties!" at the top of his voice.

Rex let go of her like she'd burned him. She and Kyra rolled their eyes at each other. "Boys are _so _stupid," Kyra complained.

Sarah nodded, but her agreement was cut short by her mother. "And just where did you two get to?" she asked sternly.

Sarah refused to feel repentant. If Mommy and Daddy hadn't been fighting then there would have been no reason for her to run off. "Climbing trees," she said.

Diana looked at her suspiciously, but nodded anyway, passing her daughter the baseball and mitt. "I think you dropped this earlier."

She took it. "Thanks, Mommy." She didn't ask where Daddy was – it was obvious he was gone, and judging by the argument they'd had, he probably wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. At least she'd see him later. She turned to Kyra. "Wanna play baseball?"

The green-eyed girl's eyes lit up. "Sure! Rex, c'mon!"

Without waiting for his reply, Kyra had Rex by one arm and Nicky by the other, and was dragging them both outside. Sarah giggled and turned to Auntie Shay. "You're playing too, right?"

"Actually, sweetie, I think your mom and I are just going to have some coffee and catch up for a bit," she said.

Sarah pouted a little, but unfortunately the puppy dog eyes rarely worked on anyone except Daddy, Dick, Tim, Uncle Clark and… Well, most of the men she knew actually. Except Alfred, of course. Likewise Nicky's puppy dog eyes only worked on Mommy, and Auntie Audrey, and Auntie Shayera... maybe she should get him to try this. Still, she decided to give it one last try. If they were playing baseball too, and now that there was Nicky's power in the mix, they'd probably send the ball into orbit within five minutes.

"Please, Auntie Shay? We'll probably need you to fly after the ball if N..." _Crap! _Hastily, she tried to correct herself, "...yone hits the ball too hard." _Yeah, because _that _sounded convincing... _She cleared her throat and put her hands on her hips. "I've been working on my swing, y'know!"

Both Mommy and Auntie Shay chuckled gently, and Sarah breathed an inward sigh of relief. Keeping this a secret was going to be harder than she thought. "I'm sure you have, kiddo, but you're just going to have to risk it," Auntie Shay smirked.

"Okay..." An idea struck, and she looked up again brightly. "Hey, is Uncle John around?"

"No, little star, he's not," Mommy replied. She and Auntie Shayera exchanged a look before she elaborated. "He's on business."

"Oh. Bummer."

The backdoor was pushed open again, and Rex stood there, already looking out of breath. "C'mon, Sarah!" He grimaced. "Nick's already kicking our ass –"

"Watch your mouth, young man!"

"Sorry, Mom." He looked back at Sarah with a barely-concealed roll of his eyes. "Nick's kicking our _butts, _and we need help!"

* * *

Alfred knocked on the door of the games room, where Sarah and Nick were sat in front of the giant-screen TV, playing some kind of racing game. He frowned slightly. He was certain that a moment ago there had been almost no sound coming from this room, and now the noise from the game was almost deafening. He shouted slightly to be heard above it. "Children, what would you like for supper?"

Sarah answered quickly without hitting pause. "Meatballs!"

Nick did pause the game. "You always want meatballs," he complained.

"That's because they're yummy," she said firmly. "Can we have them please, Alfred?"

Their grandfather figure looked at Nick. "Is that what you would like, Master Nick?"

He twisted his mouth. Truthfully he wanted pizza, but knowing Alfred he'd simply offer to make both, and he didn't want to put him to too much effort. But they had meatballs _all _the time when Sarah chose dinner. "Well... I'm sorry, Alfred, but I kinda want pizza."

Sarah, thankfully, changed her mind. "Oh, actually that sounds good," she said, sounding a little surprised. "Pepperoni?"

He grinned. "Sure."

Alfred smiled. Though the twins could bicker like no one else, far more often than not they agreed with each other. Certainly any arguments they had never lasted long; they were far too close for that. He only hoped that they would stay that way, especially when Sarah began showing signs of her latent abilities, as he was sure she would, quite possibly soon. It could all-too-easily drive a wedge between them, but equally he couldn't see Master Nick being anything but supportive toward his sister.

"Pepperoni pizza it is then. Continue with your game, my dears."

They both grinned, and then resumed the game. By the time Alfred reached the top of the staircase, however, the sounds of the game had stopped again. He raised an eyebrow. What were those two up to?

Deciding that it was best to pay it no heed, he descended into the kitchen and began preparing dinner. Master Bruce was no great fan of pepperoni, but that was too bad – he wasn't here to register his objections.

After chopping the tomatoes, peppers, and grating the cheese, Alfred began making the pizza dough. It wasn't a difficult process, though it could be quite labourious. Quite predictably, it was as he was elbow-deep in flour that he was interrupted.

Sarah came into the kitchen, looking around. "Where's Daddy?" she asked. "I thought he'd be back by now."

Alfred shook his head. "He is still out, Miss Sarah."

She frowned. "Out where? He said he'd be here tonight – I need help with my chemistry homework."

Alfred smiled. "I'm sure he'll be back later, miss. In the meantime why don't you see how much of it you can do on your own. If you do it in here I may be able to help you too."

"Oh. Okay." She still wasn't happy, but left the kitchen to collect her books.

Alfred smiled at her disgruntled expression. He enjoyed being able to help the children like this, especially Sarah. She was only another five years or so from attending high school, and after that Alfred was under no illusions she'd be far from college. Her intellect was nothing short of amazing to anyone who knew her. Her tutors and teachers were certainly over the moon about it. Then there was Master Nick, who, while not quite as academically brilliant as his sister, was still highly intelligent and not far behind his sister in his schooling.

His smile faded, however, as he thought about where his employer was. It wasn't like Master Bruce to forget a promise made to one of his children – especially Sarah – but then with the altercation with Miss Diana this morning, Bruce had gotten into one of his many very expensive cars and driven off down the driveway. The children had spent the rest of the afternoon with their mother and Miss Shayera and her children, if he wasn't much mistaken, but once up here they had been quiet and somewhat secretive. All in all, a very odd day – and not an overly good one.

* * *

It was good to be back in Gotham.

Selina had spent the last five or six years traveling; the last two in Paris. The City of Light still remained her favourite place in the world, of course, but still... Gotham was where it had all started. Besides, as much fun as cheating the security system of the Louvre was, the challenges in Gotham were more complex. Not to mention bat-shaped. She was looking forward to seeing him again.

For the moment, though, she was thirsty, and while the best champagne in the world was served in Paris, her favourite martini came from Finnigan's, an Irish bar in downtown Gotham. She was expecting to have two or three, then go back home. She wasn't planning on stealing anything tonight, not when she'd not had a chance to research what there was in the city worth stealing.

What she wasn't planning or expecting, was to walk into the bar and find it already occupied by a familiar face. Though exactly what _Bruce_ was doing in a bar...

She made her way over, hand on her hip. "Never thought I'd see you drinking alone."

He looked up, took a bleary second to recognise her. "Selina. What are you going here?"

"Having a drink, oddly enough," she smirked. "Move over, honey."

He shifted slightly, and she scooted into the booth next to him. He was still looking at her with an odd mix of tenderness, surprise and the relaxation of drunkenness in his expression. "You've changed your hair," he said after a moment.

She nodded, pushing a dark strand behind her ear. He reached over and touched her face. "I like it."

Man, he really _was _drunk. He'd never talked to her like this before.

She smiled at the compliment anyway, and ordered a martini from the bartender. "So how was Paris?"

"Oh, fabulous as usual."

"Find a good buyer for the Monet?"

She raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I'm flattered you've kept such a close eye on me, Bruce." She sipped her drink. "And yes, I did."

"Good." He paused. "Not good. Give it back."

She laughed. "God, Bruce, how long have you been in here?"

"What time is it?"

She checked. "Ten to midnight. Shouldn't you be out already?"

"Yeah." He made no move to leave.

She raised a finely plucked eyebrow. "Okay..." She took the olive from her glass, sliding it off the cocktail stick into her mouth as seductively as possible. No harm in teasing him a little - and sure enough, his gaze flicked to her lips. "So why are you in here? I thought you'd have a wife to go with those two kids of yours by now," she remarked off-handedly.

He chuckled. It was surprisingly and horribly bitter, even to Selina. She thought she'd heard him at his most cynical. "Oh no wife, trust me." He threw the rest of his whiskey back, gesturing for another one immediately. "No, no fucking wife..." he muttered.

So... there was a woman. She wondered who it was. Whoever she was, though, Selina knew full-well she was better. She drained her glass. "And how are the little darlings?" she smirked, running a hand through her shoulder-length dark hair.

To her surprise and not a little disdain, rather than glare, Burce fished inside his jacket for his wallet. He pulled it out and opened it. The beaming faces of the twins looked back at her. Selina looked over them with a cursory glance. She wasn't really a child-friendly woman. Kids were okay as soon as they turned eighteen. Until then... eh, they could be someone else's problem.

She had to admit, they'd probably both be stunners once they were grown. They made quite a contrast too – the girl – Sarah? – with her almost white-blonde hair, whilst the boy's – Nicholas – was jet-black. Both of them had the same bright, deep blue eyes. "Well aren't they... angelic," she said dryly.

Bruce snorted. "They're little hellraisers, don't let the smiles fool you."

"With you as a father?" she asked, leaning toward him. "How could they not be?"

He didn't smile. Instead he sighed. "I worry about them. Sometimes I think..."

She put a hand on the back on his neck, stroking his hair in a gesture that had been automatic when they were together. "Bruce... a lot may have changed, but I know you're an excellent father."

"How? You don't know –"

"I know _you_," she said soothingly. "I know your capacity for affection – when you choose to offer it," she added, semi-sarcastically, "but I can't imagine your kids are fools." She let a little softness creep into her tone. They'd parted because, in the end, the life she led couldn't be reconciled with his. There had never been a problem anywhere else. Especially in the passion department. Really, a part of her... part of her missed him. "And anyone who turns down your affection... they're a fool," she finished firmly.

When he kissed her, she tasted alcohol in his mouth. Didn't care, and kissed back.

* * *

Diana sighed as she turned the shower off. Despite the best efforts of her children, she hadn't had the best of Mother's Days. That had been ruined since this morning, with her argument with Bruce. Hera, it was all so... screwed up. When they weren't in the same room, it was easy to pretend that he was simply a friend – albeit a friend with whom she had children. The routine was just that by now, and they had kept to it for years.

Things changed, though, when they were alone together. Without the barrier of the children there, that spark that had always been between them flared into a full-blown fire. Today had been one such example. After the twins had gone upstairs, Alfred had finished the dishes and set them on the drying rack. The two of them had decided to put the dishes away. It had been so stupid, so silly. One little touch.

They both reached for the same glass. Their fingers met. So did their eyes. All it took was for him to say her name, and then she was in his arms, his hands reaching around her to rest on her back. And she felt... fear. Excitement. Like she was standing on the edge of a cliff, and he was asking her to leap off – all the while assuring her that she would learn how to fly on the way down. There were times in the past when Diana would have jumped, no questions asked, her faith in him was so strong. It wasn't anymore.

Nonetheless, he was going to kiss her. Part of her – most of her – wanted him to. The glass they were holding between them slipped. Fell to the floor and smashed the tension between them. Diana pulled out of his arms. Then the argument had started.

It hadn't been until this evening that Diana realised the reason. She was scared. She was scared, no, _terrified,_ of change. Things might not be good, but they weren't bad. They were comfortable. If she and Bruce did give their relationship another go, and it went wrong again, how could she recover? How could she look at her children and tell them that Mommy and Daddy never would? That hope, she knew, was keeping them innocent. But how long could it go on before hope turned to disillusionment?

When had everything changed? In the beginning, she had been the hopeful one. _She _had been the one trying to convince Bruce that what rewards would be worth the risk. The current irony of the situation was not lost on her.

She wrapped a long robe around herself and left her bedroom. The trash needed taking out. She frowned as she passed the children's bedroom. It seemed awfully small without them in it. The house was too quiet too. It would be another week before it became noisy again.

She went to the kitchen and picked up the trash, then made her way outside. A little way away, she saw the tail-lights of a cab driving away. There weren't any other houses around here, so she assumed Bruce was back from wherever he'd been. A bar, she assumed, since he'd driven this morning. She sighed, put the trash in the garbage can and then turned around to see two silhouettes almost at the manor doors. One was clearly a woman. The other was Bruce. As she watched, they leaned toward each other and kissed.

Hard, hot jealousy stabbed at her; a dagger right into her heart. That _bastard_. That son of a –

She realised that the lid of the garbage can had crumpled like tinfoil in her hand. She threw it away in disgust. How _could_ he? How could he simply go out, get pissed, pick up a girl for sex, take her back to the house where _her _children were sleeping peacefully under the very same roof? How could he pretend that he hadn't looked at her that morning as though she were the only woman in the world? Now... she wasn't. Oh Hera. Why did that make her feel so completely guilty? She could be that woman up there, right now. They could all be one family.

But she wasn't. She wanted to be. She wanted... _Aphrodite give me strength. I want _him.

* * *

Sarah was up earlier than Nicky the following day, and knowing that Alfred would be out in the garden by now – he'd mentioned something about weeding the fountain on the east lawn - she went down to the kitchen. She smiled as she pushed open the doors. Alfred's telepathy had once again served him well; he'd take the box of cereal down from the top cupboard and put it on the counter so that she could reach it. Sarah took out a bowl and spoon, pouring out the Lucky Charms and then getting the milk out of the fridge.

That done, she pulled herself up onto a stool and began eating. She glanced at the clock; Nicky's alarm would be going off soon so they could get ready for school, but like her mother, she found that she ended up rising early naturally. While she ate, she thought about yesterday. She'd done some research, and her conclusions had backed up her suspicion yesterday. Mommy was definitely Wonder Woman, Princess of Themyscira, Champion of the Amazons. Grandma Hippolyta was the _queen _of the Amazons. _I guess I should start calling her 'Yaya'._

Among Mommy's powers was not only flight and super-strength, but apparently she could talk to animals too. Sarah had let out a soft '_oh_'of comprehension with that one. No wonder Mommy had been so insistent they couldn't get a dog. If she or Nicky had walked in while they were having a conversation... She giggled at the image.

The smile was quickly wiped off her face when the kitchen doors opened, and a completely strange woman walked through. She was pretty, certainly, but nowhere _near _as pretty as Mommy. Sarah narrowed her eyes. If there was a strange woman in the house, then she was something to do with Daddy. He tried his best to keep his string of airheaded girlfriends away from the twins, but this one, apparently, had managed to trick Daddy into letting her inside the manor.

Sarah narrowed her eyes momentarily. Time for Deterrent Tactics 101. Too bad Nicky wasn't here to help. Him helping made it so much more fun. Still, she could handle it herself.

* * *

Crap. After last night, seeing Bruce's daughter was the last thing Selina wanted. Sure, the sex had been good – if a little rushed – but during she'd been able to forget he was a father. She'd been able to pretend that she was sleeping with the old Bruce. Confronted with one of his children, however, she was back to knowing that he was just that little bit less dangerous, and that was disappointing.

This little blonde girl in front of her, however, seemed to be actively pleased to see her. "And you would be who?" she asked with an overly sweet smile. "Danni?"

"No," she replied.

"Oooooh," Sarah said in mock-comprehension. "Then you must be Amber."

Selina's mouth tightened a little bit. "No."

"Hmm." Sarah, throughly enjoying herself, tapped her chin thoughtfully with a finger. "Stacy."

"Not quite."

"Let me think... Alexis."

"Not even close," the woman replied, all pretense of civility abandoned.

Sarah shrugged. "Funny, because that's all this week's bimbos... Or are you an advance on next week?"

The sound of footsteps came down the stairs. Turning her back on Selina, Sarah grinned and ran from the room. "Daddy!" Curious, Selina followed the child silently.

When Selina caught up, she watched as Bruce caught the girl in midair when she threw herself into his arms. She kissed his cheek and then hugged him tightly. "I missed you."

Selina watched Bruce's face melt into an expression she had never seen before. She had seen him content a few times over the years, seen him almost at peace, but never had she see him _happy_ before. His eyes were brighter than she'd ever seen, nor had she ever seen that little grin before.

It was like she was watching a perfect stranger, and all because a pint-sized, smart-mouthed child lit up at the sight of him and launched herself into his embrace.

Selina also caught the message that the brat was sending. _You may have had him for a night, but he's _mine _for life._

Suddenly, Selina felt her throat tighten up a little bit. _What am I doing?_ she wondered. Her employer wanted DNA samples from the girl and her brother – whom she hadn't even met as of yet, but Selina was no fool. She didn't doubt that doing this would come back to bite everyone in the ass, most especially Bruce and his children.

Selina had done a lot of bad things in her life; she was no saint. Hell, Bruce could probably list just about every immoral thing she had ever done... right down to seducing him the previous night. Even with all of that, though, she had never done anything to actively _harm_ children.

For several more moments, she watched Bruce hold a muted conversation with the little girl in his arms, and then she quietly stepped backward toward the back door of the manor. She'd go around the side of the house and down the drive way. Her taxi would be here soon anyway, and she could get out without being seen.

It was time to get out of here, out of Gotham. There was no longer any reason to stay. No matter how much she had missed bat-shaped alarm systems. The time for that had long passed Selina by.

* * *

**A/N: Review please!**


	4. Plan B

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Very short, but it's another teaser ;) Thank you to Angel Queen.**

**Chapter Three - Plan B**

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"You're not done."

"Yes, I am. Here's the money back."

"... Why?"

"I've got my reasons. I don't know what you want with those people, but I won't have any part in it."

A door slammed.

A phone was dialed.

"It's me. Plan A's a bust. We're going to Plan B." A pause. "Yes, I'm sure. Brief the unit."

---

**A/N: Review please!**


	5. Losing Sleep

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! And Angel Queen in a genius, so a round of applause for her!**

**Chapter Four - Losing Sleep**

_Whoosh!_

"Got it! I-"

_Snap!_

_Thump!_

"Ow."

Sarah stared down at her brother's crumpled form. "That must have hurt," she commented.

Nick looked up at her, rolling her eyes. "You think?" He rubbed his leg, which he had hit on a branch. "Superheroes make flying look so easy," he muttered.

Sarah shrugged. "I'll try to get more footage of Wonder Woman and Superman and the other heroes that can fly," she promised him. "It might help." She bent over and took his hand, helping him to his feet.

"How?" he asked her, still rubbing his leg. "I know Daddy gave you that laptop for your birthday, but can you really do that on it?"

She grinned. "Nicky, what do you think YouTube's for? People think the Justice League are awesome. They'll post whatever footage they can get of them on there. There's lots of stuff." Sarah paused, wrinkling her nose. "Only problem is finding good videos," she told him. "A lot of them are jumpy or have really grainy pictures."

Nick nodded. "Okay..." He looked up toward the manor, glad that they knew of this spot that was near the house, but still out of sight. It was the best place to practice while not being seen. They just had to keep it at short bursts, or Alfred or Mommy or Daddy would come looking for them if they stayed where they couldn't see them for too long.

"Think we should head back?" he asked.

"One more try," she said, "then it'll be nearly dark anyway."

"Sarah, I'm getting tired."

"_One more _go, Nicky, come on," she insisted.

He stopped and folded his arms. "You can't make me, Sarah!"

She sighed. "Okay. Sorry," she admitted. "I'm being too bossy, aren't I?"

"What else is new?" he muttered.

"Hey!"

He stuck his tongue out at her. "You know it's true."

She huffed. "Are you gonna do it, or not?"

As with most things like this, Nick knew it was easier to just let his sister have her way. Otherwise she'd be in a mood all day, and with Mommy not talking to Daddy, and Daddy not talking to Alfred since Alfred would want to talk about Mommy, Nick really didn't want to deal with Sarah not talking to him.

Accordingly, he squared his shoulders and took a deep breath, then squeezed his eyes shut, screwing his face up and concentrating as hard as he could. After a few seconds he cracked open one eye. "Did I do it?"

"No," she answered. "Maybe you're _too _tired. Maybe you need nappy-time."

He growled under his breath. Even if he _was _tired, there was no way he was just giving up – how was he ever going to prove to Mommy he could do this if being _tired _got the better of him? Still, it was _hard_. He'd spent all day at school imagining this, but now that he was trying...

"No," he said finally, "I've just gotta... relax."

Sarah nodded, though it didn't look like she knew how he was going to do that. Nick lost patience after a few minutes. "Well, I can't do it with you _looking _at me!"

She rolled her eyes with a smirk, and laid back on the grass, directing her gaze up to the sky instead. "Hey, that cloud looks like a dog," she giggled.

Nick groaned inwardly. How could she go from school teacher to school _girl _so quickly? Still, he glanced up to the cloud she pointed out. Huh. It did look like a dog. And that one next to it almost looked like a ball. Or maybe that was his imagination. He formed a circle between his finger and thumb and gauged it. Yup. A ball.

He glanced down at Sarah – only to find she was a lot further down than he remembered. They stared at each other for a second, Sarah with eyes wide and biting her bottom lip. Then it hit Nick that he was ten feet in the air.

The second thing that hit him was the ground.

Sarah didn't give him a hand up this time; she jumped on him and hugging him tightly. "Well done!"

"Ow, Sarah, I just –"

"You flew!" she said, grinning excitedly. "You flew, Nicky, you just floated up into the air!"

He nodded, stood up. "I think I know how to do it now – I just focused on the sky and... _whoosh_."

She giggled. "Well, it worked." She stood too, and then sighed. "We should probably get back. Alfred will have dinner ready soon."

They made their way back to the manor, smelling the delicious scent of dinner already well on the way.

* * *

"Damn it," Bruce muttered. Another dead end.

He'd been tracking a shipment of nuclear warheads that the weapons division of LuthorCorp had mysteriously 'misplaced'. The warheads had had their GPS locator cards removed, so there was no conventional way to track them. Batman, however, had _un_conventional ways. His methods showed the warheads to be in the middle of Uzbekistan. That was fine, he'd already alerted the League to their locations and was confident that they'd be picked up within hours.

The thing that wasn't going to so well, though, was breaking into Lex Luthor's personal accounts. He need to track the money back to the arms dealer, so then the police could arrest Luthor for arms trafficking. Those warheads could have easily ended up in the hands of Al Quada, or any other terrorists with the money – to let Luthor get away with it would be unthinkable. Obviously he couldn't funnel the money into company finances, but Luthor had better firewalls on his accounts than Bruce did – that was evidence enough he had something to hide, but it was also circumstantial. So far he'd not been able to write a virus programme that could crack them. At this rate he'd be asking Sarah for help.

Using his secure League email account, he composed a message explaining the problem to the Question, and sent it to Vic. Once that was done, he checked the time. Seven-thirty. He needed to make an appearance upstairs, if only so that Sarah and Nick would believe he was just arriving back from the city. After the twins were born, Bruce had installed a secondary entrance to the Batcave in the garage floor, so that if he were in the Cave while the kids were in the house, he could pretend to have just been coming home from the office.

As expected, they were both in the kitchen with Alfred. Doing the dishes, from the sounds of banging china and the clinking metal. He pushed open the door to see Alfred sitting on one of the kitchen stools, twitching every time Nick dropped a plate into the sink with a loud splash, or Sarah shoved the glasses into the wrong cupboard.

Bruce smiled at him, and the Englishman stood. "Good evening, Master Bruce."

The twins turned around, identical smiles on their faces. "Hey, Daddy!"

He hugged his son and daughter. "Hey. How was school today?"

"Good," Nick shrugged. "History was boring. We were doing the... something War."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "The Something War? You weren't listening were you?"

"It was a really long time ago," Nick explained, and nothing to do with me –"

"Things a really long time ago still mean things," Bruce said. "Look at how the Romans influenced every culture they conquered."

Nick didn't seem convinced. "Okay, but learning about a wooden bunny? How's _that _gonna affect me?"

_A wooden ...?_

Suddenly, Sarah tutted and whacked her brother lightly on the arm. "Sarah," Bruce warned. "Not acceptable."

"Sorry, Daddy. But, Nicky, it's a wooden _horse_."

"What?"

"You're learning about the Trojan War – the Greeks used a wooden _horse_ to get inside Troy."

"_Oooooh_."

Struggling to contain a laugh about what Diana would say if she knew her son considered the Trojan War boring, Bruce restrained himself to saying, "Even boring things have to learned sometimes, Nick."

"But _why_?" he asked, slightly whining now.

"Think about it, Nicky, your two times tables are really boring, but once you learn them you get to move on to interesting stuff, like quadratic equations –"

Nick shot his sister an alarmed look. "Math? You call _math_ interesting?"

"Just because _you're _too stupid to –"

"Enough, you two," Bruce quelled. He looked at the clock. "I think it's bedtime."

"Aw!"

"Come on."

Forty five minutes later, the children were in bed and Bruce was once more down in the Cave. There was something wholly unsettling about the juxtaposition of brush-teeth-warm-milk-bedtime-story against nuclear-warheads-followed-by-beating-the-shit-out-of-criminals.

Always verging on being two people, Bruce had decided he now definitely was. Kissing his children's painfully innocent sleeping faces was so easily affectionate – every moment he spent with them was. There were his kids; so free with their own love that it was impossible not to return it. Unfortunately, though, it had also gotten him used to the idea of showing his love for the people he cared about. It had only improved his relationship with Dick and Tim, but he couldn't help wondering if it was making his relationship with Diana worse.

Even before the twins were born he'd known how he felt about her, but like everything else he'd gotten so used to hiding it. Now it was out, and neither of them really knew how to deal with that. Well, he knew how to deal with it – _be _with her. However, whenever he tried to broach the subject with Diana, she ran, and when that happened... it _hurt_. The result was nights like the one he'd spent with Selina.

Which led him to another problem. He had been blisteringly drunk, he knew that, but he had doubts about how drunk Selina had been. He only remembered her having two martinis, which didn't make sense. If she'd come to Gotham with the intention of seducing him – she normally did – then why not wait till he was sober? He knew she had more pride than to sleep with a drunk – she relished a challenge. Sleeping with a trashed ex was hardly that. So she'd wanted something, something other than sex. What? To steal something? Nothing was missing; all the paintings were still on the walls, all the jewels in the vault. The Batcave hadn't been disturbed. If she'd take anything at all, it was something he hadn't missed – but he was inclined to think she hadn't taken anything. She'd changed her mind.

Next question: why? The only person who could answer that was Selina, and she was gone. Had caught the earliest available flight out of Gotham and was now in Toronto. Had something... scared her away? Selina? If that were a possibility then he'd consider Diana a potential suspect, but Diana had made it perfectly clear that she wasn't –

_Don't go down that road. _He had no desire to spend tomorrow nursing another hangover.

Drawing a line under the Selina mystery, Batman accessed the email from the Question that had just landed in his inbox. The message was short. _Mutating algorithm attached. Been wanting to test it for a while now. Q. _

Batman lifted an eyebrow. He'd tried all of his own – not insignificant – hacking skills, and come up empty. Did Vic really think a simple-?

Yes, he did. Because it was. A few seconds after using what the Question had given him, Batman had complete access to all of Luthor's accounts. He ran a scan of all the companies that had paid money in; three flashed up as dummy corporations. They'd all made substantial payments within the last twenty-four hours. Now all he had to do was follow the money.

An hour later – after it had gone through a dozen more companies and fifty seven countries – the money landed squarely at the feet of Arkady Maltayev - Uzbek arms dealer.

Smirking, Batman tapped his com-link. "Superman, come in."

"_Go ahead, Batman_."

"Arrest Luthor. I've found the connection."

He could almost hear the grin spreading across Clark's face. "_Good work. On my way._"

"Batman out."

Right, now that was the international terrorism taken care of, it was time to turn his attention to more important matters. Gotham.

On cue, the door opened at the top of stairs, and Alfred descended, a tray in one hand with a steaming cup sitting on it. "Your espresso, sir."

Bruce took it, tossed it back. "Thank you, Alfred."

"Very good. Take care, Master Bruce."

Bruce had acknowledged him with a nod, then jumped into the Batmobile and sped away as Alfred climbed back up the stairs to the Manor.

* * *

Sarah sighed, sitting up in bed. She couldn't sleep. Too much had been happening lately – discovering Nicky's abilities, Mommy and Daddy fighting and now not speaking to each other – and she couldn't stop thinking about it. She looked across the room toward her brother's bed, and rolled her eyes. Finding out that he was meta-human wasn't causing Nicky to lose any sleep.

Pursing her lips, she crawled out of bed and slipped out of the bedroom. If she couldn't sleep, she might as well get something to help. Walking downstairs, she looked through the various rooms for Alfred. It was past her bedtime, but she doubted it was past Alfred's or Daddy's. They were probably still awake somewhere.

Still, as Sarah searched, there was no sign of either of them. She finally made it to the kitchen, which was also deserted. Sarah pouted for a brief minute. She wanted hot chocolate; Alfred's hot chocolate, to be precise. It always helped her sleep. If he knew, she didn't doubt that he'd make it for her. For a few moments, Sarah toyed with the idea of making it herself, but then decided not to. Even if she could do it, there was no way she could hide the mess it would make and she knew she'd be in serious trouble. She already had enough of that at the moment with Mommy and Daddy. She didn't want more.

Sighing, she grabbed one of the glasses left on the counter for her and Nicky since they couldn't reach the cupboards – though, now that Nicky could fly, Sarah didn't think they'd have too much trouble with that anymore – she set it on the kitchen table and went to the fridge. Pulling the milk out, she poured some into her glass. After putting the milk away again, Sarah took her glass and walked out of the kitchen. Sipping on her drink, Sarah eventually wandered into the study.

She wasn't in there more than a few seconds when the big clock began to shake and shudder, of all things. Sarah gasped and instinctively dove behind her father's desk – her milk coming with her and miraculously not spilling – and then peered back around it with wide eyes.

* * *

**A/N: Review please!**


	6. Selfish, Brooding, Smug

**A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! My internet's been a bit dodgy today, so I apologise for not replying to them. Hopefully I'll be able to for this chapter. Also thank you a million times to Angel Queen.**

**Chapter Five - Selfish, Brooding, Smug**

The clock finally swung open like a door, and Alfred appeared. Sarah watched him push it back into place and fiddle with the clock hands. He then left the room, having not noticed her watching him. Sarah's mouth dropped when she looked back at the clock. She tiptoed to the doorway and made sure Alfred was gone before she went over to it. It sure _looked _like a normal clock, and she'd always thought it was, but it was obviously a doorway to somewhere... but where? As far as she knew there was only the games room on the other side of that wall... Unless it was thicker than it looked?

She put her milk on the desk and left the room, walked into the games room and tried to judge how thick the wall was. It was difficult to tell, since the pinball machine was in the way, but maybe it was a _little _thicker than it should have been. Of course, thinking about it, if Daddy was hiding something then putting the passage way next to the games room was quite a clever idea – she and Nicky were really the only ones who used it, and if Daddy went through the clock at night, then the other room would be empty. She went back into the study, opening the glass pane of the grandfather clock to get a proper look at its workings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but then she didn't know much about clocks.

Deciding on a trial and error system, Sarah began fiddling, pulling on bits she thought might move. Nothing happened, and her patience ran out quickly. If she was going to figure it out, then she'd have to know what she was doing. If she accidentally pressed the wrong bit then she might trip some kind of security system Daddy had built in, and then she'd get in trouble with both him and Alfred.

No, the best idea was to head back to bed and then research clocks tomorrow, find out what wasn't supposed to be there. She should also probably monitor how often Alfred and Daddy went down there too, so that when she found out how to get through, she wouldn't get caught.

Whatever it was Daddy was hiding down there, he obviously didn't want anyone to find it. Exactly how she'd break it to him that she'd found out... Never mind, she thought, shaking her head. She'd cross that bridge when she came to it. Still, as she made her way back to bed – checking furtively for Alfred on the way – she couldn't help speculating. _Why _would Daddy have something hidden behind the clock. A room, it had to be, since Alfred was in it, so it couldn't just be a hidden safe. A vault, maybe? She knew there was the one down in the wine cellar that contained all the most valuable things, like Grandma Martha's jewellery and things... unless it _didn't_? _Yes, _Sarah thought, warming to that idea, _that makes sense. _The one in the cellar was a fake, and it was the one behind the clock that was real. It was all a big ruse – clever, too. That _definitely _made sense; Daddy was clever, after all.

Unless she was wrong – not about the clever, thing, she knew he was that, but was she–

Nicky snored softly, breaking Sarah from her circular thoughts. She huffed, snuggling down into bed. She couldn't think straight while she was tired. Daddy was hiding something, she didn't know what, and thinking about it all night wasn't going to help her any.

Though the kids were at Bruce's this week, Diana had offered to pick them up from school, since Alfred was busy trying to mend the acid burn on Bruce's latest batsuit, which was apparently proving rather resistant. Ordinarily it wouldn't have mattered, but since it was a model of the suit loaded with new technology - and Bruce only had one prototype - it was apparently important that it be ready for tonight's patrol.

Of course, that wasn't what she could tell Nick, when he asked. "Your father has a cocktail party in a few days and Alfred is preparing for it, little sun," she explained.

"Oh."

Sarah - who ordinarily would have rolled her eyes or asked _why _her father was having a cocktail party, or why he hadn't invited Diana - simply got into the car without saying anything. And then sat there.

"Seatbelt, Sarah," Diana said gently.

Nothing. Her daughter was staring out of the window, her bottom lip between her teeth. "Sarah?"

Still being ignored. Sarah being deep in thought wasn't an uncommon occurrence, but she'd never... _brooded _before. Diana hid a smile. _Her father's daughter. _Not that that was any surprise.

Diana shook her arm slightly. "Earth to little star..."

Sarah blinked. "Huh?"

"Seatbelt, Sarah," her mother said, looking pointedly at the buckle.

"Oh. Right. Sorry, Mommy."

Once Sarah was strapped in, Diana started the car and set off toward the manor. The car was uncharacteristically silent as they drove - Sarah had lapsed back into her brooding while Nick wasn't looking at anything in particular, but was grinning almost smugly at it.

"So..." she said after a while, "did you two have a good day?"

"Yup!"

"Fine..."

The sullen tone in her daughter's voice caught Diana's attention. "Sarah? Did something happen today?"

"No," she said - but too quickly. Diana had been around Batman long enough to know when someone was lying.

"Not buying it, Sarah," she said lightly, but firmly.

"Nothing _happened, _Mommy," she emphasised. "I'm fine, okay?"

"Sarah, I know when I'm being lied to," Diana warned, glancing at Sarah's face in the rearview mirror.

Nick spoke up from the other backseat. "Just tell her, Sarah."

There was a muffled thump, followed by an, "Ow!" from her son. And then another from Sarah when Nick, naturally, retaliated.

"Hey, you didn't have to hit me so hard!"

"You hit me first!"

"Because you wouldn't _shut up_!"

"You were being stupid - why won't you just tell Mommy-"

Diana pulled over, the turned in her seat to glare at the twins. "Children, stop this right now! Stop it!"

They both looked at her guiltily for a moment before saying in unison - both in timing and insincerity - "_Sorry._"

The apology was forced, and she hated that, but six years as a mother had taught Diana to compromise. With children that combined the willpower of both she and Bruce, it was difficult to win in even a small way, so she took what she could get.

The heavy silence lasted until Diana pulled up at the manor. "Now you two be _good_," she emphasised.

They both nodded. Sarah stood on her tiptoes outside Diana's window to kiss her cheek. "Sorry, Mommy. I'm okay, though."

Diana frowned, hugged her daughter through the window. "You would tell me if there was something bothering you, wouldn't you, little star?"

She nodded. "Of course. But there's nothing... wrong."

On that unhelpful and slightly worrying note, Sarah turned and followed her brother into the manor, shutting the door behind her. Diana frowned harder as she drove back down to the gatehouse. Something _was _wrong, whatever Sarah said. And if she wouldn't talk to Diana, maybe she'd talk to Bruce. Making a mental note to call him, Diana parked next to the house, then opened the front door.

It was empty, cold and very, very quiet inside. This morning she'd hoped it would be - she needed a bit of peace to look over the edited copy of her new manuscript before she sent it to the publisher. Now, though, it was only depressing. It didn't help that she'd been in a rush and hadn't opened the curtains in her study this morning. She opened them and let cold grey light flood the room.

Sitting down, she picked up the phone and pressed three on the speed-dial. It rang once before she slammed it down again.

Then she stared at it for a good five minutes. Was she ready to talk to him? It was unsettling. She'd spent so long trying to further her attraction to Bruce, and then burying it, that unearthing again it was difficult. She didn't know how to go about telling him how she felt... especially since she knew he loved her, and she felt ashamed that she'd disregarded that for so long. Did she love him too? Hera, that was a messy vat of feelings she had to delve into.

Truthfully she didn't know. She had... but if that was true, then when had she stopped? Had falling out of love with him been a gradual process? Falling _in _love with him certainly had been - but did that mean she had to do it all over again? Was she being selfish? The jealousy she'd felt at seeing him with another woman was extremely territorial. Perhaps it was just because she liked the idea of him waiting for her forever-

"No!" she whispered aloud. "No, that's not true."

She sighed, and finally decided on taking the cowards way out - she dialled the manor, and waited it to be picked up. She'd tell Alfred. He could tell Bruce.

"Hey," Nick nudged his sister. "Are you okay, Sarah?"

She spat her mouthful of toothpaste into the sink, and then wiped her mouth. "Yeah."

"Liar," he accused. She'd been really distant for more than a week now, and moody too. He could cope with her being bossy, but when she went all quiet and broody... he hated it. "Is it just because Miss Maurier told you off?"

"No!" she snapped, turning to glare at him. "And anyway, it wasn't _my _fault Amy Turnbull can't throw a ball to save her life."

"You weren't even looking, Sarah," he said.

"I was too!"

"Then you would have _dodged._"

Rather than arguing more, as she would ordinarily have done, Sarah simply turned her back and stuck her nose in the air, reaching for the mouthwash. Nick grabbed it before she could. "Mommy is the princess, Sarah, so stop it."

She sighed, and then looked down at the bathmat. "My math teacher told me off," she said quietly.

For anyone else it was silly, actually laughable, but for Sarah... as far as Nick knew, she'd never been told off by any teacher, for _anything_. Now twice in one day, _and _in math? Bad. Really bad. "Why?" he asked.

She shrugged, then opened her mouth, shut it again and shrugged once more. Nick frowned – what was going on? It wasn't like Sarah to keep things from him, they told each other everything. A horrible thought struck him. He hadn't thought she was jealous of him getting Mommy's powers, but what if she was? What if she was gonna hate him for –

His unpleasant thoughts skidded to a halt when Sarah hugged him. "You're my best friend, Nicky," she said in a small voice. "You know that."

He blinked – maybe she _was _getting powers. He looked at her with a little suspicion. "Did you just read my mind?"

"No," she smiled. "I just always know what you're thinking."

Well, he couldn't argue with that. Before he could continue and ask her what was wrong, she changed the subject. "So how's it going..." she tiptoed over to the door to check for Alfred or Daddy, and then carried on, "..._powers-wise_?"

"Well I've kinda given up on the flying thing – I know I shouldn't totally," he added hurriedly, seeing her beginning to argue, "but I figured I'm gonna have to do the super-strong thing too, right?"

She nodded. "So what did you do?"

"Well you know how Robby Lindstrom picks on everybody at school?" he asked wickedly.

Sarah gasped. "Nicky, you didn't! What were you thinking?"

"No, Sarah, I didn't –"

"Heroes _don't _go round beating people up just because they feel like it, Nicky! And you could've totally given yourself away – and Mommy too –"

She cut off as he put a hand over her mouth. "I _didn't _beat up Robby."

"Oh. Well what did you do?"

He shrugged with a careless grin. "I crumpled up his bike into a teeny-tiny little ball."

Sarah looked very much like she didn't want to giggle, but gave in after a second, little hissing sounds coming from her mouth. Robby was the _worst _kind of bully – even though he never picked on Nick or Sarah generally - his M.O. was to pick on anyone with less money than him, and then bizarrely demand _more _money off them. He knew, of course, that there was no point in lording it over the Wayne twins, but that didn't protect their friends from his attentions. The idea of his very expensive BMX being crushed like a tin can was very satisfying.

Inevitably, though, Nick saw caution return to Sarah's gaze. "Don't worry," he soothed, "I made sure no one saw me. And there's no way the principal can accuse me either."

She nodded. "Okay." The smile returned to her face. "At least we know you really are that strong."

"Pfft. I could be stronger," he told her. "I bet I could lift a car if I really wanted to!"

She giggled. "Maybe Mommy's car first – Daddy's are pretty expensive if you drop one."

She raised a good point, but Nick wasn't planning on doing it to either parent's car – Dad's because of the price, and Mom's because she could probably lift the _house _if she wanted to.

The bathroom door creaked open, and Dad poked his head around the door. "Not that I'm complaining about your sudden interest in dental hygiene, but you're only supposed to brush your teeth for two minutes."

"Just coming, Dad."

"Okay," he nodded, then looked at Sarah. "Sweetie, why don't you go pick out a book from the study?"

They'd finished Nick's choice of bedtime story last night, and needed a new one to start. He watched his sister leave the room, hoping that she wasn't going to be pick something too girly.

Okay, this was it. She'd been waiting for an opportunity to be legitimately alone in the study for days; Alfred or Daddy always seemed to be around whenever she wanted to poke around the clock. As she'd planned, she had researched grandfather clocks on the internet carefully, and now knew almost exactly what one was supposed to look like both inside and out. In fact, clocks were all she'd been thinking about for days – and why she'd been told off twice in the same day by her teachers. Her lessons – even _math _- were falling by the wayside. She sighed. _I need to watch that... _If she carried on, then the school would contact Mommy and Daddy, and then she'd have a _lot _of explaining to do.

She made sure no one else was around, and then opened the glass pane of the clock, inspecting its working closely. There was nothing out of the ordinary she could see there... Okay, so what about the outside? She'd asked Alfred innocent questions about the clock a couple of days ago – it had been custom made for her great-great-grandparents in the nineteenth century, so it wasn't like she had a model to compare it to. Still, though there were some intricate inlays and decorations – most of them containing little golden 'W's' everywhere – that might be something. She twiddled and pushed and pulled and prodded for a few moments, but nothing happened. It was very annoying.

So maybe it was the hands. Maybe they had to be turned to a certain time? But that was a _lot _of positions she could put them in. She looked carefully, doing the math in her head. That was… That was seven hundred twenty possibilities! That could take her _days _– weeks if she had to be sneaky about it!

At the footsteps outside the door, she slammed the clock door shut quickly and grabbed for the first book she could find just as Daddy came in. "Thought you'd gotten lost in here," he smiled.

"No," she said, returning the smile. "Just couldn't decide which book I wanted."

He walked in, picked her up. "What did you decide in the end?"

She handed the book over having no idea, only just now seeing the title. "_Moby Dick,"_ she read. "Hey, is this about Uncle Dick?"

Daddy laughed and began walking up the stairs to the twins' bedroom. "No, Sarah, it's not about him."

"Oh," she pouted, disappointed. Much as she loved Uncle Dick, she also loved teasing him – and being teased back in equal measure of course. Hence why, to his face, she called him Richard, and then ran away giggling when he chased her, demanding that she take it back. "Then what is it about?"

"It's about a whale," he said. "And about a man."

"Do you like it?"

He nodded, and then smiled. It had a sad edge to it though. "My dad used to read it to me when I was your age."

"Granddad Thomas, really?"

"Mmhmm."

"Wow."

The talk of her grandfather had driven the clock temporarily from her mind, and when they got to the bedroom, she settled down and listened as Nicky did, wide-eyed.

She also failed to picture Daddy as a little boy.

"Hey, Diana."

She smiled. "Hello, Dinah. How are you?"

Black Canary nodded. "Good. You? You're not on monitor duty tonight are you?"

"No," she admitted, "but the twins are with Bruce tonight, and the house was too quiet."

Dinah chuckled. "I'd kill for a quiet house. I swear Ollie gives Mike sugar when I'm not around, just to make him hyper when I am."

The princess chuckled. Michael Queen was a couple years younger than her own children, and all kids that age had boundless amounts of energy. Though knowing Ollie, sugar-sabotage couldn't be ruled out. "Nick and Sarah were the same," she said. "Though thankfully my cookies aren't on par with Alfred's, so they rarely got so exuberant around me."

Dinah smiled. "Well we're trying to stop the bedwetting as well, so that's another thing to add into the mix."

"You must be tired," Diana said, noting the dark shadows under her friend's eyes. "I can take over here if you want. Go home and get some sleep."

Canary smiled. "Doubtful I'd get much more rest there, to be honest." She checked the time. "Only nine-fifteen. I bet Mike's still climbing the walls – actually make that Ollie's probably climbing the walls."

"For Michael's entertainment," Diana added with a grin.

Both women laughed for a moment at the image, before an alert flashed up on a side-screen. Diana checked; the Batwing landing. The twins would be in bed, and it was a little early for Batman to be starting his patrol.

Diana swallowed, trying hard to contain her nervousness. It was extremely unlikely that he'd be coming up here to talk to her, but the last time they had spoken it had been disastrous. Added to which, her personal revelation of a few nights' past had been weighing heavily on her mind.

"You could just tell him, you know."

She blinked, frowning at Dinah, who wasn't looking at her. "What?"

"Batman. You could just tell him."

"How do you know…?"

"You just stared at the empty screen that he was on for a solid minute."

The princess chuckled. "Am I that transparent?"

"Pretty much," Canary smiled. "But, Diana, before you do say anything... make sure that you love him in the right way."

Diana frowned. "What do you mean?"

"He's the father of your children," Dinah explained. "And because of that, it's easy to love him. Just make sure you love him as a man too."

Diana's frown deepened. Did she? _Love him as a man too..._

Suddenly an alarm sounded, drawing the attention of both women. There was an area of eastern Europe flashing red. A country that Diana recognised – she'd been dreading something setting the pile of tinder that was Kasnia alight for weeks now. It looked like something finally had.

On top of that, Audrey – Diana's friend, Sarah's godmother – was probably in danger as well.

"I'll go," she said quickly. "Tell Hawk, Dove, Captain Atom and Stargirl to get to a Javelin and down there as soon as possible – I'll get Batman."

**A/N: Review please!**


	7. Answers And Questions

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! And thank you to Angel Queen for the beta :) Here's the next chappie - both father and daughter are in for a shock...**

**Chapter Six - Answers And Questions**

"Urgh..."

Diana cracked open her eyes, waking with a headache the size of the Metrotower. An familiar voice spoke up from nearby, relief evident. "Welcome back, Princess."

She looked blearily at Bruce's masked face, hovering above her. "...What'd I drink?" she murmured.

He smirked. "Nothing. Someone threw a tank at you when you weren't looking."

"Oh." Diana blinked, then asked, "Did they get away with it?"

"No," he assured. "No, they're all in one of Audrey's colder jail cells." The smirk on his face spoke of his satisfaction. "Also, her Majesty asked me to remind you that she has not seen her goddaughter in some time and would like that situation to be remedied in a timely fashion."

Diana grinned a little – laughing didn't seem like the best idea given the state of her head at the moment – and then pushed herself up into a sitting position. "Good. Thank you."

Predictably, Bruce pushed her back down again. When he spoke, his voice was gentle. "No, Diana. You could be concussed, you need to lie down until I get you to the med-bay."

She smiled, gave into the impulse to squeeze his hand. "I'll be fine, Bruce."

"Humour me."

She rolled her eyes. "Just because it's you."

"And the fact you know I could make you if I had to," he supplied with a flash of a grin.

"In your dreams," she retorted, inwardly grinning. They were flirting again, they were back to their natural banter. Thank the gods – she might be able to make things better. Make them right.

They were alone in the bottom part of the Javelin; it looked as though she'd been the only one injured. That was a little embarrassing... but what she had to do now might be more so. "Bruce..." she began, "I'm sorry I –"

Captain Atom's voice interrupted. _"We're about to dock now, Batman. Is Wonder Woman still stable for transport to the Infirmary?" _

Diana spoke up, not looking away from Bruce. "I'm fine, Captain, thank you."

"_Glad to hear that, ma'am." _

They docked soon after, and once he'd seen her to the med-bay, Bruce left for Gotham. Diana sighed. She'd missed her chance for today.

* * *

"I'm not not talking to you, Nicky!" Sarah sighed.

"You are so not talking to me!" he protested. "You haven't said more than two words to me all day, Sarah – you were talking more to Emma Reilly than me, and she's in first grade!"

She shrugged. She'd been talking to Emma Reilly because she'd accidentally stumbled upon the little girl crying over something. Sarah wasn't good with tears, but tentatively asked if there was anything she could do.

"I-I'm trying to make a picture for my granddad but I can't d-do it and it looks nothing like what I w-w-wanted it to and he's gonna hate it and I really want him t-to like it and he's gonna h-hate it!"

Sarah had looked critically at the finger painting she'd been working on. It looked like a... "Is that a fish?" she asked.

Emma had wiped her nose on the back of her hand. Sarah – naturally, since Alfred had had a hand in her upbringing – wrinkled her nose and waited for the reply. "Uh-huh. He likes fishing." She sniffed. "So... So you can tell that's what it is?"

"You bet!" Sarah had grinned, nodding enthusiastically.

"Mommy says that he'd love anything I made him. Do you think she's right?"

Sarah honestly had no idea. That sounded nice, and like something a granddad would do, but then... how would she know? She was never going to have one after all.

She nodded anyway.

Still, the thought of her grandparents had stayed with her all day. Grandma Hippolyta didn't really count as a normal grandparent – she'd be around a long time after Sarah was an old, old lady after all. In fact, thinking about Daddy's parents had driven even the thought of the clock from her mind. Nicky, however, couldn't know that.

And he was right. She _had _been giving him the cold shoulder, intentionally or not. "You know Mommy calls us the exact same thing?" she said, making a stab at conversation.

Her brother frowned at her. "Huh?"

"Yeah," she continued. "Think about it. Little sun and little star. The sun _is _a star."

"Oh."

He apparently didn't have a reply to that, so the car journey passed in silence until they got to the manor. Figuring she'd given it her best shot, Sarah went back to thinking.

She knew – in theory – what had happened to her grandparents. She knew that Daddy had seen it. She'd never seen anything about it though; no newspaper articles, no news clips. Nothing except what she'd learned from Alfred, and while Alfred had assured her that her grandparents had been the most wonderful people in the world – naturally, since they'd had Daddy – he hadn't exactly been free with details. She didn't know what perfume Grandma Martha used, or what kind of doctor Granddad Thomas had been. She wanted to ask Daddy those kinds of things, but knew she couldn't. He'd answer, but then he'd get sad, and she didn't want that.

After talking to Emma, though, she really wanted to know things like that. What had happened exactly? Who had done it? How could _anyone _do something so cruel? For some reason she couldn't really name, she didn't want Nicky to see what she was looking at, so she left him in the games room saying she was going to study, then opened her laptop and began surfing the net. It didn't take long looking in the on-line archive of the _Gotham Gazette _to find what she was looking for.

She mouthed the headline. "Gotham philanthropists gunned down in vicious armed robbery..." She clicked on it, read through the article. "Eight-year-old heir sole survivor..." The further she read, the worse she felt. She was six, and eight wasn't that much older… Poor Daddy! She was sure she couldn't survive if it was her mommy and daddy, how on earth had he? To suddenly find himself completely alone, with no one to kiss him goodnight or read him a bedtime story –

She pressed a hand over her mouth to stifle the sob that erupted, but hot tears sneaked their way down her cheeks. The urge to demand Alfred take her to Wayne Enterprises just so she could hug Daddy was almost overwhelming. She wanted to shut her laptop and not look anymore, but her eyes kept scanning the lines of print.

_The attack occurred at approximately ten-forty-seven, with police arriving on the scene six minutes later. _

It was unbelievable. In the space of a _minute_, Daddy's entire world had changed. "Ten-forty-seven..." she whispered. "Oh Daddy..."

Then something clicked in her head. Ten-forty-seven. "_Ten-forty-seven!_" Her mouth fell open, her tears instantly forgotten. That was it, she knew it was. That was the time she needed to turn the clock hands to.

"Great Hera, that's _it_!"

The wait until bedtime was _torture_. When she was lying in bed, wriggling her toes in excitement, it felt like Christmas Eve. Unlike Christmas Eve, though, she refused to fall asleep. Every year she and Nicky tried to catch Santa in the act, and every time they failed. Then again, a man who could travel the world in one night with flying _reindeer _was a worth adversary. Daddy, she was going to catch red-handed, doing...whatever it was he did behind that clock.

She was sure he would be in there – Alfred had read them the second chapter of _Moby Dick _tonight, because Daddy was in a 'conference call with colleagues in Tokyo' in his study and couldn't be disturbed. Sarah knew that wasn't true – when she'd passed the closed doors earlier, there wasn't even a peep of sound coming from inside, not even in Japanese, which she knew Daddy spoke.

Despite her best efforts, though, the long day and the warmth of her bed worked their magic – by nine p.m. she was fast asleep.

At eleven, however, she was woken by a light. She groaned, and opened her eyes, realising what it was. She'd opened the curtains again once Nicky was out, hoping that staring out at the city's lights would help keep her awake. The Bat-Signal had just gone up, casting a shaft of light to fall into the nursery.

Sarah grinned. _Thank you, Batman._ Assuming he was actually real, of course.

Pushing thoughts of the Dark Knight aside, Sarah quietly pulled her dressing gown on and tiptoed out of the room. Time to find out what Daddy was up to. As she passed the top of the stairs, there was light spilling from under the kitchen doors, so Alfred was still up. She'd have to extra quiet then. She couldn't risk getting caught, not now.

Getting to the study doors, she pushed them open with a wince as the hinges creaked. She had her excuse ready if Daddy really _was _in here – she was after another book, because she couldn't sleep and she didn't want to spoil _Moby Dick _for Nicky.

However, her suspicions were right – the room was dark, and there was no one inside. She moved over to the desk and grabbed the chair, dragging it over to the clock. Then she opened the glass door and stood up on the seat. She took a deep breath and bit her lip, then moved the hands to ten-forty-seven.

For a second, nothing happened. Sarah's heart sank. She'd been wrong, there was something else she was missing –

Then the clock started moving toward her. Moving faster than she thought possible, she scrambled to get off the chair and pull it back. By the time she'd put it behind the desk again, there was a large, black hole where the clock had been.

And steps.

Going down.

She stared, bug-eyed, at it for more than a minute. Then a fox barked outside, and she jumped, realising how risky this was. Taking yet another deep breath and holding it, she walked forward, and down the steps. They didn't go on for too long before there was another archway, and white, electric light at the end of it.

Once there, Sarah's feet froze in place.

Her jaw dropped.

It was several seconds before she remembered to breathe again.

"_Whoa._"

* * *

Batman pulled into the Cave feeling a rare sense of satisfaction – he'd finally caught up to the recently escaped Poison Ivy before she unleashed a mutating virus that would turn every rose in the state into a finger-eating monster. The former Dr. Isley was now in Arkham once more, and expected to be unconscious for the next seventy-six hours.

Judging by the white-green light in the Cave, the computer was in use. Bruce frowned; it was unlike Alfred to use the computer while he was on patrol unless he'd requested some information about a specific person or company on file.

When he left the car, though, it turned out it was extremely _un_like Alfred. Considerably younger, for a start; blonde for another, and not to mention female.

Sarah turned with a wave, still sitting in hischair. "Hey, Daddy." The grin on her face was bright even in the dim lighting of the Cave.

Bruce could only stand and stare. Sarah had apparently expected that. "How was patrol?" she asked. "I've been following it – sort of – on the radio, but all I heard was what the police knew. How did you get Poison Ivy?"

He blinked. Blinking was good. It was a step on the road to speech.

For a moment, father and daughter just stared at each other before Sarah giggled. "You're not talking, Daddy."

He swallowed. "Sarah?"

She turned back to her game of Solitaire. "Yes?"

He moved forward, switched the monitor off and spun the chair around. "Why – How – When –"

She smiled smugly and put her fingers up one at a time as she answered. "I couldn't sleep; I stood on the chair to open the clock in the study; and about half an hour after you went out."

He'd gone speechless again. Sarah put her hands up and pulled his cowl back, then leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "You have to ask the question to get an answer, Daddy."

He took her hands. "Sarah...how long have you known?"

"That you're Batman?" she shrugged. "Not long. About three days or so."

"That long?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Nicky doesn't know, so you don't have to worry about that."

"Who told you?" he asked urgently. A thought occurred to him. Surely she wouldn't have… "Your mother?"

Sarah shot him a truly disgusted look and got off the chair. "I'm _six_, Daddy, not _stupid_. It's the only thing that makes sense."

He raised an eyebrow. "It is?"

"Yeah. I mean, I read the papers, Daddy. They always say what a horrible person you are, and I know you're not like that, so logically you have to be hiding something. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. Though," she added as an afterthought, "technically, since my IQ is one-fifty-six, I am a genius."

He chuckled slightly. _Technically you're a princess too._ "No arguments here." Then he sobered. "Sarah, I'm impressed you figured it out, but you can't come down here anymore."

She frowned. "Why not?"

"Because... it's the Batcave. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is –"

"Why is it dangerous?" she asked. "You don't bring criminals back to the Cave, and I don't want to come on patrol with you. Yet."

What exactly he was choking on, Bruce had no idea. He was definitely no longer breathing, that was for damn sure.

Sarah laughed again. He glared. She carried on laughing, then took his hand. "C'mon, let's go get some of Alfred's hot chocolate and you can tell me about patrol –"

"Does Alfred know you know?"

She shrugged. "Probably. I haven't told him, but he's Alfred, so..."

Bruce pulled his daughter to a stop. "Sarah, listen to me."

She looked up with wide eyes. "What is it, Daddy?"

"Promise me you won't..." He watched her eyes get defiant, prepare to argue, and gave a mental sigh. There was no way he'd get to her agree to anything she didn't want to. This was the start of that slippery slope he'd knew would come one day, even if he'd desperately hoped that it wouldn't. "Promise me you won't go anywhere near the platform for the Batmobile, or anywhere near the weaponry. The computer _only_, young lady, understood?"

She nodded with a blinding grin. "Okay, Daddy! I promise! Now come on – hot chocolate!"

Watching his daughter run up the stairs, Bruce let a groan escape him. _Now what do I do? _

Diana was going to kill him. If Sarah knew about him, then she probably knew about her mother as well. Even if she said that Nick didn't know yet, at least about him, Bruce would wager that it was only a matter of time before he did. Sarah did not keep secrets from her twin for long.

Bruce gave her a week before she spilled the beans. Then both of them would know.

Hence why Diana was going to kill him. They had worked so hard to keep the twins from the life of superheroes, and now that hard work was crumbling before his very eyes. Bruce just knew she'd find a way to blame him for it, even if it was just to blame him for Sarah's keen insights.

_Damn it._

* * *

_**A/N: Review please!**_


	8. Teenagers

**A/N: Thank you for your lovely reviews! Here's the update! **

**Chapter Seven - Teenagers **

"Daddy!"

Bruce tensed momentarily before he realised that there'd been no fear in Sarah's squeal. In fact there was laughter. He listened; there were more giggles, this time from his son.

"Daddy, make him stop it!" she shrieked.

Ah. So tickling seemed to be the order of the day. Well as long as they didn't gang up together and target –

"Oooph!" Too late. Both the twins had decided to switch from tickling each other to attacking their dad. Neither of them could reach any higher than his ribs, so Bruce stood with his ticklish neck a safe three feet above his children.

Finally Sarah stopped, looking disgruntled. "Daddy, you could at least _pretend _to be ticklish!"

He smirked and then sat down on the couch. The kids immediately clambered on him, renewing their efforts at tickling. Bruce decided that he wasn't about to go defenseless, so launched a counter-attack. Ten minutes later, father and children collapsed on the couch and struggled to breathe between fits of laughter.

"Now why are you two up here?" he asked. "It's a Wednesday; you're supposed to be with your mother."

The twins exchanged a look. "Mommy's been nominated for a Booker Prize," Sarah explained, looking at him carefully. Bruce couldn't help the grin that crossed his face. It was about time she got recognition – he'd never admit it, but he had the first editions of every book she'd written... even if he hadn't yet worked up the courage to ask her to sign them. He really didn't need to feel more like a teenager with a crush than he already did.

Sarah continued. "And she has to go to London for a few days in two weeks, and there are going to be really glamourous cocktail parties and book signings and readings –"

Nick cut to the point. "And Mommy needs a date."

Bruce got up. He really should have seen this coming. "Oh no, no way, kids, no way am I discussing this with you two."

"Why not?" Sarah asked, peering up at him with an expression that was both curious and guileless. "Don't you like London?"

Bruce wasn't for one second taken in by the big innocent blue gaze. "I like London just fine," he said firmly. "I like Gotham more."

"But Mommy wants you to go with her," Nick chimed in.

Their father narrowed his eyes, refusing to acknowledge the fact that his stomach fluttered a little bit at the idea. He was too old to have butterflies for God's sake. "Has she said that?"

"She doesn't _have _to," Sarah said. "Daddy, you don't really want to give up on her, do you?"

Bruce turned away, unwilling to be manipulated by two six-year-olds – even if they were his own children. "I think you two should get back to your mom now," he finally said. "I'm sure you have homework you need to be doing."

They both got up and looked at the door, but didn't move. Unsurprisingly, Alfred's apparent telepathy had not let him down; he was already pushing open the door, and waiting. "Come, Miss Sarah, Master Nick. I will walk you to the gatehouse."

"Okay..." Nick said gloomily, walking to take Alfred's hand.

Sarah stayed by her father for a moment, hugging him briefly. "I love you, Daddy." She drew back, looking him in the eye with a very direct gaze. Definitely his daughter. He had the annoying urge to squirm in his seat. "And so does Mommy."

She turned and joined her brother and Alfred by the door. Suddenly she spun back to him again. "Be careful tonight," she called. In French.

With that, they were gone, leaving Bruce blinking on the couch. _She speaks French? Since when? _

Bruce eventually heard the front doors open and shut. Going to the windows, he watched the twins scamper down the drive with Alfred walking behind them at a more sedate pace. His lips twitched when Nick tugged on Sarah's braid, causing her to shriek and chase after him.

After several moments, his eyes drifted from the children to the gatehouse. It was the middle of the day, so he couldn't tell if any lights were on in the house, but as far as he knew, Diana was home. He briefly wondered why she hadn't called when the twins had disappeared from the house.

Well, that was most likely because she was well used to it by now. Nick and Sarah loved to play on the Manor grounds, though they were warned constantly to be careful. The last thing they needed was for one of the children to fall through a weak spot in the ground and into the plethora of caves that resided below the Manor. Though, Bruce admitted silently, that was slightly moot at this point since Sarah had already discovered the Batcave. Come to think of it, she hadn't really given him a straight answer on _how_ she had found it.

He focused more closely on the gatehouse. Diana might be used to the twins vanishing on her with no notice, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to let her know that Alfred was returning them. Bruce turned away from the window and walked over to the phone. Yes, he'd just give her a heads up.

He steadfastly told himself he was _not_ calling to ask about her trip to London and if she'd found a date yet.

He picked up the receiver and dialed the number. It rang about three times before she picked up. "Prince residence."

"I hear congratulations are in order," he said by way of greeting. Damn it. What had that been about _not _mentioning London?

"Oh... Apparently," she said with a sigh. He could picture her in her office, taking off her glasses and putting her feet up on the desk, leaning back in her chair. "I doubt I'll actually win though."

"If the panel members have read any of your books then there's no way you won't, Princess," he replied.

"You really think so?" she asked with a hopeful tone in her voice.

"I know so," he said firmly.

"Thanks, Bruce. I wish I had your faith in me."

"Well I have enough for both of us," he smiled.

She chuckled gently. "Thank you."

"The kids are on their way back with Alfred now," he said.

"Their way back?" she asked. "I didn't even know they'd gone."

"Mmm. They're getting disturbingly good at that," he replied.

She laughed again. "I'll be disturbed when they're teenagers and doing it."

Bruce cringed momentarily at the idea of a teenage Sarah sneaking out her window to meet her boyfriend. Her no-doubt tattooed, mohawk-haired, leather-clad biker boyfriend. He made a mental note never to let any teenage boy anywhere near his daughter. Was it too early to start cultivating a reputation as an overprotective father?

Clearing his throat, he changed the subject. "So when exactly are you going to London?"

"Twelve days. There's the champagne reception before the award ceremony, then the ceremony itself, then a banquet, then a cocktail party after that. Then I'm booked at several venues to do book signings and readings for about three days."

"You're going to be busy for a few days then," he commented.

"Yeah – I just hope that the League doesn't need me."

"I'm sure they can cope," he said.

"Hopefully," Diana agreed. Then she added, "And it says 'plus one' on the invitation, so I have to get a date, I guess."

"So... got anyone in mind?" he asked. His question was followed by a wince. His voice hadn't been that high since before puberty.

Diana sighed. "Not really. I can't seem to find my address book to ask anyone."

Bruce raised his eyebrow. Dare he even continue to think that the twins' broaching the subject with him had been spontaneous? They had planned this, he'd bet the Batcomputer on it. He cleared his throat nervously. "Well, if you need someone and can't get anyone else, I wouldn't mind coming with you."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "You wouldn't?" she asked quietly. "What about the city? Wayne Enterprises?"

He shrugged. "Dick told me just the other day that things were slow in Bludhaven for the moment." Slow being relative, of course. Bludhaven was as bad as Gotham used to be. "Lucius has things under control with the company," he added.

Another pause, and Bruce hoped he wasn't imagining the smile he thought he could hear in her voice. "Well, thank you, Bruce. I appreciate it."

His heart continued to pound. "I'll make the reservations," he said. "Where is the ceremony taking place?"

"Somewhere in Southbank," she said vaguely. "The invitation is in here somewhere – but, like my address book, it seems to have disappeared. I'll find it later."

"You sound tired," he noted gently.

She chose that moment to agree with him in a non-verbal manner, by letting loose a huge yawn. "Understatement of the year," she chuckled. The smile faded from her voice as she continued. "I can't stop thinking about those children we saw..."

Three days ago, they'd been in the last pocket of Kasnia to give up on the civil war. Audrey had done a good job; for the first time in decades, peace had been established, however fragile it was. Still, the League had been needed in the northwest, where a warlord was basically holding the entire region hostage, threatening to starve the people unless his demands were met. They went in, and he was now awaiting trial in the Hague for war crimes. What had not gone according to plan was the fact that he'd made good his threat. There were thousands of people starving. Including hundreds and hundreds of children, most of them no older than Sarah and Nick. He and Diana had seen at least two dozen little bodies, wrapped in sheets because there had been no time to build enough coffins. Bruce knew it was the same with Diana, but he couldn't stop imagining his own children's faces under those sheets.

"I know," he said quietly. "Sunday night I ended up watching them sleep."

"I've been doing that too," she confessed. "I just... I can't imagine what –"

"Then it's probably best not to," he pointed out kindly. "They're okay, Princess. We'll protect them from anything; you know that."

"I know," she replied. "Thanks, Bruce. I just..."

"You're just doing what every mother before you has," he finished. "It's a miracle they're so independent, given how much we worry about them."

She chuckled. "True."

Over the line, he heard the door open and the voices of the twins. "We're back, Mom!"

"I'm in the study," she called.

"Who's on the phone?" he heard Sarah ask.

"Your father," Diana said. "And don't think you two are off the hook – you know better than to wander off without telling me where you're going, even if you're going to the Manor."

"Sorry, Mommy," Sarah said, her voice perfectly pitched for butter-wouldn't-melt. "Did you find your address book?"

"No, not yet."

Nick's voice was next, and Bruce had no doubt that the kids and Alfred had been discussing this on the way down. It was in no way a secret what Alfred thought about his and Diana's relationship – or lack thereof. If the kids were after an accomplice, they had a perfect one in Alfred.

He and Diana stood no chance.

"Ask Dad about London," Nick urged his mother. "You already have his number."

"I already have," Diana said. "Now – homework, go!"

There was a stream of probably very-well rehearsed complaints before they left to do so.

Diana came back on. "I should probably go – they'll be hungry soon; I need to make a start on dinner."

"Alright. I'll let you know when I've made the reservation," he said, a grimace following almost immediately.

Thankfully Diana didn't seem to have noticed his Freudian slip. "Alright. Thank you, Bruce."

"Anytime," he replied, meaning it.

"Bye."

"Bye, Princess."

He put the phone down and then realised that despite his protestations, he had been played by his kids after all. Still, no need to let them know that.

Unfortunately, it seemed the Fates were not going to be so kind; he'd gotten two steps away from the phone before it rang again.

He picked up it, but didn't have time to issue a greeting before Sarah's excited voice came through. "So? What did you say?"

Bruce rolled his eyes.

* * *

This wouldn't do. This wouldn't do _at all. _

Diana was in her bedroom, packing for London. The flight was tomorrow, and so far she'd managed to make none of the preparations she'd been intending to – the children had seen to that. Not deliberately, of course. In order to give Diana a little time to herself, Shayera had offered to take the kids out for the day, but had then herself been called away for League duties, leaving John to mind all four children. And he was a wonderful father, she knew that, but he'd not thought to check the sugar content on the slurpees the children had been drinking _all day_.

Thus, they'd arrived home high as kites and dragged her out to play football with them whether she had the time to spare or not. They hadn't tired for more than five hours, stopping only when none of them could see the ball anymore in the gathering dark. It was only in the last few hours they'd begun to wind down – Nick was asleep now, and Sarah was in her pyjamas ready for bed if not quite in it yet.

Diana had no choice but to trust her daughter with getting herself ready for bed, since she needed to pack. That had been the plan, anyway. Now the plan was deciding what she was going to wear.

More specifically for the awards evening.

Even more specifically what was going to make Bruce go weak at the knees.

She'd not found any suitable dresses in her closet so far. Yes, they were all beautiful and formal and comfortable – but she felt like none of them were _right_.

She'd gone through green, blue, purple, grey, black, white, and come up empty. She was now trying on a gold silk gown that fell to her toes, with a plunging neckline that covered both her breasts but revealed just enough cleavage. She had suitable accessories that would go. But she wasn't sure...

Just as she was debating changing outfits for a seventh time, there was a gasp from the doorway. Diana's eyes darted to Sarah's reflection. She had her mouth wide open. "_Mommy_," she whispered. "You look so beautiful!"

Diana smoothed her dress again. "Do you think so?"

She nodded, came in and sat on the end of the bed. "Is that what you're wearing on the way to London?"

Diana laughed. "No, little star. This is for the award ceremony on Tuesday evening."

"Oh right," she said innocently. "Daddy'll love it."

"You think so?"

The words were out before she could stop them. Immediately, a brilliant smile spread over Sarah's face. Diana waited for the cheering and squealing to begin, but it didn't happen. Instead Sarah seemed content to grin quietly, only saying, "Yes, I'm sure."

* * *

**A/N: Kinda sedate, I know, but give it a couple of chapters. Plan B isn't far away! Review please! **


	9. London Calling

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! I'm so sorry this took me soooooo long! And thank you to my wonderful beta, Angel Queen.**

**Chapter Nine - London Calling**

That evening, Sarah looked up from her laptop at the soft knock to see Alfred standing in the doorway. He did not appear pleased. "It is past your bedtime, children," he reminded them. "Put your computer away please, Miss Sarah."

Sarah nodded. "Just two more minutes, Alfred."

"No, dear, now," he said gently.

"But I've almost... Got it!"

Curiosity piqued, Alfred stepped further into the bedroom. "Got what?"

"She's hacking into the Ritz's computer system," Nick explained casually, "changing Dad's reservation."

"Nicky!" she scolded, thumping her brother on the shoulder. "I can't believe you just told him that!"

"Well isn't that what you're doing?"

"Yeah, Nicky, but it's illegal!" she complained.

His jaw dropped. "You didn't tell me _that_," he complained.

Alfred cleared his throat. "Now, children, don't quarrel. And, Miss Sarah, before I reprimand you, can you please elaborate as to just _why _you are doing this?"

"I'm changing Daddy's reservation so that he and Mommy are in the same room," she explained, biting her lip in concentration and returning her gaze to the screen in front of her.

"Ah," was Alfred's response. He paused for a moment, and then continued, "Well, in that case, I can see that the two of you are having trouble sleeping. I shall go and make some hot chocolate. I trust that when I return the two of you will no longer be...quarrelling?"

They both nodded, wide grins on their faces. "Oh no, we'll have stopped fighting by then."

Alfred nodded and left the room, deciding he hadn't heard the giggles that broke out behind him.

* * *

Bruce slept for most of the flight, which Diana had really expected; it wasn't often he got time away from Gotham, in either of his alter egos, and there was literally nothing to worry about whilst on the flight to London. Gotham was in safe hands with Nightwing watching over it, and the children were under Alfred's excellent care.

She'd opened her book early on in the flight to indicate that he didn't have to talk if he'd rather get some much-needed rest; he gave her a grateful smile, then thirty seconds later was fast asleep. Diana had smiled and helped herself to more complimentary champagne. A girl could get used to traveling first class.

As the pilot announced they were coming into land at Heathrow, she touched his hand. "Bruce, we're landing," she said softly.

"Mmm?"

She smiled at his groggy expression. "You really are tired, aren't you?"

He nodded and yawned, then buckled his seatbelt. Soon the plane banked, and within twenty minutes they were taxiing to a stop outside the terminal building. The stewardesses smiled and thanked them for flying with British Airways as they left.

Bruce still looked half-asleep, and chuckling gently, Diana steered him through passport control and into the limo that met them. He yawned again. "Don't know what I'd do without you..."

Diana smiled and looked away. "I take it you didn't get much sleep last night?" she asked quietly.

"Riddler, Ivy, and Freeze," he said wearily. "Then the kids got up early for God knows what reason."

"When was the last time you had a full nights' sleep?" she asked.

He thought about it for a moment. "Nineteen eighty six."

Diana laughed shook her head. "I'm sure we can remedy that while we're over here."

When they stopped outside the Ritz Hotel, they walked to the reception desk and were greeted by an extremely polite receptionist. Now looking much more alert, Bruce gave his name and said that he'd reserved two rooms for them.

She checked, fingers moving swiftly over the keys. The computer made an ominous little beep. She frowned, tried again, but there was still nothing. Finally she looked up with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry, Mr. Wayne, but I've no record here of you booking any room."

"Could you check again? I'm sure I did," he said politely, a suspicion growing. From the expression on Diana's face, it was the same with her.

The receptionist did as he'd asked, but shook her head. "I'm sorry, but all we seem to have left is the Brönte suite."

They looked at each other. It didn't take a world-class detective to figure out who the culprit behind this mess was. "Sarah."

The receptionist looked enquiringly at them. "Excuse me?"

"Are you absolutely sure you don't have anything else?" Bruce asked.

"Positive, sir. That's it, I'm afraid," she said apologetically. "Will you be taking it?"

"Yes," Diana sighed. "Thank you."

The woman smiled and handed over the key-card to their room. "Floor four," she said. "The porter will take your luggage up for you. Enjoy your stay, sir, madam."

They entered the elevator in annoyed silence. Until Diana let out a chuckle, and then another. "I cannot believe she did that!"

Bruce grinned. "I can."

Diana sighed. "They're both quite determined aren't they?"

"Can you blame them, really?" he asked softly. "It's what every kid wants, isn't it?"

His gaze was direct and heavy, so it was impossible for Diana to ignore his implication. He wasn't trying to guilt her into anything, but it wasn't only their children that wanted it. She wondered if he knew it was the same for her. If he didn't yet, then it wouldn't be long. She'd wanted a chance, as Dinah had said. Away from the children, an opportunity to test if she loved him as a man. London was that chance.

The Brönte suite was enormous, and beautifully furnished. Thankfully, it had more than one bedroom – Diana knew she wanted something, but she wasn't sure if she was ready for sex just yet. Especially since she still had no recollection of their first time, when the twins were conceived.

After tipping the porter, Diana stood and looked at her suitcase. She really couldn't face unpacking just yet. Her stomach chose to agree by rumbling loudly, and she tried to remember the last time she ate. On the flight, but airline food, even in first class, wasn't great.

The phone on the wall rang. "Hello?"

"Miss Prince? I have your publicist waiting to speak to you, madam."

"Oh, thank you. Put her through."

"Diana?"

"Hello, Stephanie," she replied.

Stephanie Steele had been her PA since her first publication, and as far as Diana was concerned, was worth her weight in gold. She'd organised every detail of this trip – apart from the rooms – and all Diana had to do was show up on time. She was grateful for it, since it afforded her more time to spend with the children.

"How was your trip?"

"Smooth," she said. "There was a little hiccup at the hotel, but it was all sorted in the end."

"Okay, good. Get some rest, and the car will be at the Ritz at nine tomorrow morning to take you to the book signing at Waterstone's, off Trafalgar square."

"Thanks."

"Take care, Diana. Call me if there are any problems."

"Will do. Bye."

"Enjoy yourself!"

_Yes. I think I will, _she thought. Still hungry, she left her bedroom and knocked on Bruce's door. "Come in."

She pushed open the door to see that somehow Bruce had already unpacked and was also speaking on the phone. To Nick, it sounded like. Seeing her, he motioned her inside and pressed speakerphone.

"– long to get there, Dad?"

"About six hours, but we're at the hotel now. Your mother's here too."

"Oh, hey, Mom!"

"Hello, little sun," Diana replied, smiling fondly.

"How come you're in the same room as Dad?" he asked innocently.

Bruce and Diana rolled their eyes at each other. "There was a mix-up on the hotel's computer system," she said.

"Aw, shame. Guess you could've used Sarah, huh?"

"Where is Sarah?" Bruce asked.

"In the kitchen with Alfred. We're having blueberry cheesecake for dessert."

Diana's stomach involuntarily rumbled again. Bruce grinned at her. "Cheesecake sounds good. Give our love to Sarah, alright? And be good for Alfred."

"We will. Bye, Dad. Bye, Mom! Have fun!"

Nick put the phone down – but not before they all quite clearly heard him say, "Sarah, it worked! They're in the same –"

Diana chuckled. "I cannot believe how sneaky she can be sometimes."

Bruce had the good grace to look ashamed of himself. "Well, we know who to blame for that."

Diana motioned with her head toward the door. "I'm hungry. Do you want to go and get dinner?"

"Sure."

The hotel's restaurant was Michelin-starred, and the food exquisite, but Diana found she couldn't focus on the food. This felt like a date, and wasn't helped by the fact that Bruce seemed to be almost as tense as she was. He ate slowly, almost as if something was blocking his throat. Between the fish and main courses, he finally got it out.

"She knows," he said suddenly.

Diana raised an eyebrow. "Who knows what?"

"Sarah. She _knows _about me."

Diana felt her jaw drop. "_What?!_" Then outrage filled her. "How could you tell her? Bruce, we agreed that we'd keep the children out of –"

He closed his eyes for a brief second. "I knew you'd react like this. Diana, of course I didn't tell her! Have you met our daughter, for God's sake? She's smarter than most adults I know!"

"If you didn't tell her, then how _did _she find out?" she asked frostily.

"I don't know, alright? She refused to say either, but a few nights ago...there she was, in my chair at the computer when I got back."

Diana sighed and forced herself to think clearly, and not about the fact that finding the Batcave was the first step to her daughter becoming immersed in the dangerous world her parents inhabited. "Alright," she said, "is it possible that her powers have developed? That that's how she found the Cave?"

"I had considered it," he said. "But she hasn't shown any signs yet. Said she'd used a chair to open the clock, which if she could fly she wouldn't have needed to do."

"True." Diana ran a hand through her hair. "Hera."

"Exactly," Bruce agreed.

"Well, if Sarah knows, how long until Nick does as well?" she asked. "They share everything. And me? If her powers _have _developed, then by a process of elimination I'm the only parent she could have inherited them from."

"Yes – but as I said, I don't believe she has her powers yet."

Diana sighed again, and pushed her plate away, no longer hungry. She stared into space, heart fully of worry and head full of questions. Bruce put his hand on hers. "We always knew this was coming, Princess," he said gently.

She nodded. "I know. I was just hoping to postpone the inevitable for a while longer."

"Like for the next thirty years?" he smiled.

The corner of her mouth curled up. "Something like that." She squeezed his fingers. "I just... now that they know, how much longer can they stay innocent?"

* * *

"Children, lunch!"

At Alfred's announcement, Nick looked up from his drawing and left the drawing room, walking slowly to the kitchen. Sarah joined him, chattering away about something she'd learned in science class the other day, but Nick wasn't really listening. He missed Mom and Dad – they'd been gone three days now, and London had been on his mind for a while. He'd been trying to draw Big Ben, but having never been to London – or even England – he really knew nothing about it.

However, he knew someone who did.

As the twins entered the kitchen, Alfred had his back to them, making the finishing touches to their lunch. "Hey, Alfred?"

He turned. "Yes, Master Nick?"

"You're British, right?"

Alfred's mouth twitched. "Yes, Master Nick, though I have been an American citizen for some years now."

"What's it like? Britain, I mean," he added.

"Is it really different?" Sarah asked, climbing up on the stool next to her brother.

"Not really," the butler said, placing sandwiches in front of them. "There are a few differences in language, the weather, et cetera. And we drink more tea."

They both giggled before Nick sobered. "Yeah, but like...it's a lot smaller than here, right?"

"Correct," Alfred confirmed. "A small country, but a great one. Hence Great Britain."

"Cool," Nick said, not quite getting to his point, "but if it's really small, does that mean everyone knows the Queen and stuff?"

Alfred smiled. "Well it is small compared to many other countries, Master Nick, but is still home to over sixty million people. You don't know the President, for instance, do you?"

"Daddy's met him," Sarah piped up. So had Mommy, in the course of saving the world, but she wasn't going to tell Alfred she knew that. "Anyway, what's London like? That's where the Queen lives, right? Have the people there met her?"

"Yes, she does live there some of the time," Alfred told them. "And London is... Well, I imagine it's changed somewhat since I was last there."

Neither twin missed the slight sadness in his voice. "When was the last time you were there?"

Alfred took a deep breath. "Two days after VE Day 1946, when I crossed the Atlantic Ocean to come here. I've not been back since."

"Why not?" Nick asked. "Hasn't Dad ever given you a vacation?"

Alfred smiled. "He has, but I found being there too painful. I couldn't face returning."

Both children were rapt now, hanging on his every word. It was the first time in Nick's memory Alfred had spoken this candidly about life before working for the family, and he had no desire that he should stop now. "Why is it painful, Alfred?" Sarah asked. "Who...?"

Nick could see what she was thinking. In this family, pain meant love. It meant losing someone you loved.

Alfred took another sip of his tea before replying. "A young lady called Evelyn, whom I loved very much. We were engaged to be married when I was only eighteen."

"So why didn't you get married?"

"She died," he said simply, his grey eyes no longer seeing the children in front of him. "In one of the German bombing raids on London."

"... why?" Sarah whispered, her eyes brightening just a little with tears.

Alfred focused on her once more. "It was war, my dear. Both sides did terrible things. Though many British people lost their lives that night, many German people were also killed when the Allies bombed Germany the following year."

"You must miss her," Nick said quietly.

Alfred nodded. "I do still, sometimes, but I've lived a good life. I know that is what she would have wanted."

Sarah stayed quiet. "Tell us about her?"

* * *

Diana wiped her eyes and tried valiantly to pull some air into her lungs. Her chest was shuddering with laughter at the image Bruce's words were conjuring. "Just – her IQ is one-fifty-six?" she gasped.

He nodded, also laughing. "And then when she said that she was a genius, I wanted to tell her she was a princess too!"

Diana laughed again, then had to consciously stop and take several deep breaths. After a few moments they calmed down enough to talk properly. She sighed, though far more good-naturedly than she had when discovering how much Sarah knew. "What are we going to do with them?"

Bruce smiled. "Love them. And deal with everything else when it comes."

They were currently strolling through London together, having escaped from the cocktail party that had come after the award ceremony. Diana hadn't won, but didn't mind, since it hadn't really been the point of coming to London anyway. Or at least it hadn't been since Bruce had offered to come with her.

Diana had been to London before, but never outside of her League capacity, so walking along the street and being totally anonymous was a novel – and welcome – experience. She was walking next to Bruce Wayne, so anonymity wasn't complete, but the attention he was getting was far less than it would have been in the States. They were garnering second glances rather than paparazzi.

Not looking where she was going, she tripped on a paving stone. Bruce, of course, caught her hand to stop her falling. Diana thanked him, and then decided that she wanted to keep hold of his hand.

He glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. She shrugged and carried on walking. "Where do you want to go first?" he asked.

"How about the London Eye?" he asked, pointing across the river.

"Is it still open?" she asked, looking doubtfully at her watch.

"I'm sure they won't mind keeping it open a little longer," he assured.

Diana rolled her eyes. "Right, I forgot who I was talking to. What's it like to get everything you want whenever you want it?" she teased.

"Boring," he replied. "But then that's why I keep you around, Princess. Just for the excitement of never getting my own way. Of course I can't claim to be right all the time – that is, after all, your job."

"No," she said, "that hasn't been my job since Sarah was born."

After a hailing a cab to the London Eye, Diana tried not to let her eyes bug out at how thick the wedge of fifty pound notes that Bruce handed to the ticket master was. She had a feeling that their 'flight' wasn't going to be limited to an hour.

She couldn't feel any regret at that – or nervousness. That had faded by the second day, replaced by impatience. She was wasting time by being timid – now it was just getting to a situation where they were alone, unobserved and she could...tell him.

And one hundred and thirty five metres above London seemed to be the best opportunity she was going to get.

* * *

"Can I have a cookie please, Alfred?" Sarah asked.

"Yes, dear," he replied, "when you finish the sandwich you have hidden in your napkin."

Sarah coloured, then looked down at her lap. Half her chicken sandwich _was _still uneaten, but there was no point in protesting that wasn't the case. Neither was their any point in scowling or getting irritated – not at Alfred. It would get her nowhere. So she ate the rest quickly, in big bites.

Nicky had already finished his, of course, and was looking somewhat covetously at hers. Ordinarily Sarah would have been only-too-happy to give it to him, but with Alfred watching them that would be impossible. Finally she finished her sandwich, then looked expectantly up at Alfred.

Only to be rewarded by a fresh fruit salad and a smile. "When you finish your fruit, _then _you may have cookies," the Englishman said.

Seeing again the futility of arguments, Sarah accepted her bowl of strawberries, grapes, blueberries, banana and kiwi fruit without complaint.

Once Alfred's back was turned, Sarah took all Nicky's blueberries while he took the rest of her grapes. They could just tell Alfred which they preferred, but it was more fun this way. Out in the hallway, the phone rang, and the butler stood. "I'll be back in a moment, children."

"Okay, Alfred," they chorused.

As soon as his footsteps faded from earshot, Sarah turned to her brother with an eager expression. "Have you been practicing?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think I can pretty much fly on command now." With a slight grimace, he amended that. "Hover, anyway."

Sarah's eyes were wide as she looked up at one of the cupboards. Specifically the cupboard that housed all the treat foods – the ones that generally caused cavities or sugar-rushes. "Can you reach the top shelf?"

His face lit up. "Cookies!"

She nodded, then slipped off her stool, tiptoeing to the door. "I'll keep a lookout," she whispered.

"Okay."

Despite knowing she should be watching out for Alfred, Sarah kept glancing at her brother; his face screwed up in concentration for a moment, then his feet slowly lifted off the floor. "Did it!" he cheered.

"Hurry up!" she hissed, gesturing to the shelves that beckoned invitingly.

"Which ones do you want?" he asked. "Oreos?"

She stuck her tongue out in disgust. "No, not store cookies, Alfred's nice ones!"

He nodded, floated a little higher. "Wow!"

"What?" she asked excitedly.

"There are like twenty different kinds!" he said, looking down at her with excited blue eyes. "Which ones should I get?"

Abandoning the door altogether, Sarah moved to just underneath her brother, lured by the prospect of Alfred-cookies. "Are there any white chocolate ones?"

"Yeah, a whole bunch! With raspberry and dark chocolate and –"

"Ahem."

Nicky's concentration broke, and he fell out of the air. "Argh!"

Right on top of his twin. "Ow! Nicky! What –"

Both of them remembered all at once what had made Nicky fall, and they looked in unison at the Englishman standing calmly in the doorway.

"Oh. Crap."

Sarah offered a nervous smile. "Uh, hi, Alfred."

* * *

**A/N: Review please!**


	10. Screaming

**A/N: And without further ado, I present you with...another cliffhanger! Enjoy, I'm off to hide! **

**Chapter Ten - Screaming**

"Cheers."

Diana smiled and held her glass of bubbly to Bruce's. "Cheers," she returned. She sipped thoughtfully. "Not that I'm complaining, but what are we celebrating? I didn't win, remember."

"No," he said, "but maybe you're not celebrating anything."

She narrowed her eyes momentarily. "So what are _you _celebrating?"

"I have the company of a beautiful woman to myself for the next hour," he said with a brilliant grin. "Give me a better reason to be happy."

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "How does any woman resist you?"

His grin gentled into a more genuine smile. "Don't worry, Diana, I have no intention of going through all the playboy motions with you."

"No?" she asked, eyes sparkling. "Does that mean there'll be no dancing?"

He looked at her seriously. "Would you like to dance?"

"I think so," she nodded. "I'm not adverse to a little wooing."

"In that case..." He picked up a little silver remote that lay on the wooden bench in the centre of the capsule and pressed play. Quiet music began to play, accompanied by a soft and husky woman's voice singing. Bruce extended a hand to her, and Diana took it.

She did a good job of keeping her heart at a steady rate – or at least stopped it from rocketing up – for a solid minute. But it crept up until she couldn't hear the music. She was torn between anger and relief. Anger that he could still do this to her, but the relief was slowly overwhelming it. She was alone with him, and she wasn't afraid. She was in his arms, and she wasn't fighting the urge to flee. She wanted, in fact, to move closer.

So she did. She moved her hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck, reducing the gap between their chests so that they were pressed lightly together. His thumb was idly stroking the back of her hand. Diana didn't bother resisting the urge to let her eyes close, sure that Bruce was doing the same.

Was this falling in love again? It lacked the flirtatiousness of their first dance, but it meant more, so much more. She didn't know how long they danced, but eventually she felt more than heard him speak.

She leaned away slightly in order to watch his mouth and read his lips, since her ears still seemed to be filled with her own roaring blood than working correctly.

"Diana, I... Thank you."

"For what?" she asked.

"Letting me come with you."

She smiled. "It seemed like an opportunity that I wasn't going to get again. My behaviour on Mother's Day was... shameful. And ruined a perfectly wonderful day for the children."

"Diana, please don't apologise," he requested. "We were both idiots that day, believe me."

She raised an eyebrow. She didn't remember Bruce being idiotic at all. "How so?"

He winced, then took a deep breath. _Great Hera_, she thought, _what on Earth did he do?_

Whatever it was, she never found out. They'd reached ground-level again, and discovered that whatever Bruce had paid the staff, it wasn't enough. Someone had obviously tipped the press off, and there were at least a dozen flashbulbs pointing in their direction. Momentarily blinded, Diana heard Bruce utter a soft swear word before he took her hand and pulled her out of the capsule. Moments later they were in a cab and heading back to the hotel.

* * *

"Master Nicholas, if I may, exactly how long have you been able to... fly?"

The twins exchanged a glance with each other, wondering just how much to tell him. Figuring that it was impossible to hide, well... anything from Alfred, Nicky gave in. "Since Mother's Day," he said. "I accidentally pushed Sarah out of a tree and then I flew to save her."

"We've been testing and training him since," Sarah explained.

"I see, and do you have any ideas where your powers of flight may have originated?"

"Well I think Daddy's Superman, but Sarah –"

"Daddy's not Superman, Nicky!" Sarah interrupted crossly. Alfred – aware, naturally, that Sarah knew her father's identity – raised a silver eyebrow in warning. "I told you, it's probably –"

He cut off as they all distinctly heard the sound of a helicopter stop, right over the house. It was quickly joined by the roar of a car engine as it raced up the driveway.

"Is that... Tim?" Nicky asked, frowning.

Sarah got up and stood on tiptoe to see out of the window. She couldn't see the car yet, but she couldn't imagine that Tim would drive that fast. He knew better than that. After a second, the car came into view, and she backed away from the window. "I don't think so... not unless Tim's joined Special Ops or something weird."

There was more engine noise, and Nicky walked quickly to the backdoor, peering out and then quickly pulling back in. "There are about six more Hummers coming across the grounds," he said, swallowing.

"Come, children, quickly," Alfred ordered, his tone brooking no argument. "Get to the study."

Sarah, knowing Alfred was thinking of the Cave, grabbed her brother's hand and ran from the kitchen. Alfred was right behind them, but as they ran into the hallway, the front doors burst open. Several canisters were rolled inside, each emitting billows of white smoke that stung Sarah's eyes. Still, they didn't stop, and instead ran to the stairs.

The canisters were followed by at least a dozen men, all dressed in black armour, with black masks that covered their entire faces. Sarah didn't have time to notice anything else, since Nicky was dragging her up the stairs, flying judging by the speed at which they were ascending. It wasn't fast enough though, it couldn't be –

They burst into the study, and Alfred – still behind them – dragged a chair quickly in front of the door, then picked up the poker from the fireplace. Nicky stopped, watching Alfred with wide eyes. It didn't occur to Sarah that she should be moving.

It came flooding back, though, when Alfred glanced over his shoulder to see the twins just staring at him. "Sarah!" he barked.

Jumping, she ran over to the clock, dragging her brother with her. "Nicky, turn the hands to ten-forty-seven."

"W-What?" he stammered.

"Ten-forty-seven, Nicky, hurry –"

She was cut off as the doors to the study literally exploded inward. Alfred managed to hit the first man inside with the poker, but after that he was overwhelmed by the black-clad men. Nicky ran over to the window, still clutching his sister, and simply jumped through it, broken glass in all directions. Sarah shrieked until she realised that they weren't falling – they were flying.

If they were safe, though, then that meant they could go back to get Alfred. She twisted her head to look back at the Manor. "Nicky, we have to –"

She'd distracted him, and now they were falling. Nicky managed to break their fall a little bit, but they weren't far enough from the Manor to be safe. Tightening her grip on Nicky's hand, she broke into a run. Within twenty metres, there were three Hummers screeching to a halt, boxing them in. More of the soldier-men poured from them. Sarah's upper arms were grabbed, and she was ripped away from Nicky with terrifying force.

She kicked and struggled as hard as she could, but with the Kevlar and Hera-knew-what-else, he wasn't reacting to her kicks and punches at all. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in her forearm; when she looked it was to see a syringe sticking out of her skin.

"Nicky!" she howled.

The man unfortunate enough to try and grab Nicky in the same way got thrown headfirst into the nearest Hummer. Her brother didn't waste time, and simply charged at the man holding her. He screamed, and despite her position, Sarah winced for him as she heard the cracks from both legs.

She dropped to the ground, but suddenly her legs wouldn't hold her. Nicky tugged at her arm. "Sarah, come on, we have to-"

No less than ten men threw themselves on top of her brother. Sarah stayed on the ground; she wanted to help, she really did, but she couldn't see anything properly – now it was becoming hard to even sit up. The last thing she saw, before the drugs overcame her, was Nicky's face again, fuzzy and like she was seeing him through a really long tunnel. He was screaming...

* * *

It was great to be nineteen and in college, Tim Drake maintained. Being out of the house and on his own, while not a completely new experience for him, still had yet to lose its allure. Hence why attending Metropolis University had such an appeal. There was little to no supervision, and thus he was able to bury himself in his work. Though, the fact that there seemed to be more pretty girls in Metropolis than Gotham also had its perks.

That was not to say that he didn't miss being at home. He did, terribly at times. The years since Sarah and Nick had been born had been some of the best times Tim had ever known. Despite their shaky beginning with Diana nearly dying when they were born, the twins had lit the Manor up, filling it with laughter the likes of which Tim had never seen. When he'd once commented on it to Alfred, the butler had confided that he had not seen the atmosphere in the house like this since before Doctor and Mrs. Wayne's deaths. The twins, so similar and yet so different, were able to both endear themselves to people while at the same time driving those same people to distraction. Tim figured that about the only person fully immune to that was Alfred. He'd seen too much to be thrown by two little kids, no matter how scarily smart and adorable they were.

It had been hard when, a full year early at seventeen, Tim had graduated high school and had been admitted to Metropolis University. Bruce had tried briefly to talk him into an Ivy League school, but M.U. suited Tim just fine. He'd been excited about it, thrilled even, but a part of him had been hesitant to leave. He figured that it was part not wanting to leave behind his family and part not wanting to put Robin to bed. Tim had been under no illusions that he'd be able to juggle a full college schedule as well as nightly bouts of crime fighting. Still, Dick had reminded him that his future was more important than beating up scumbags to show them the error of their ways – Dick's words, not Tim's – and also said that Robin would be waiting should he ever want to come back to it. In time, Tim had come to agree.

Of course, one of the other advantages of going to M.U. was that it was only a few hours' drive from Gotham, allowing Tim to come home pretty much whenever he wanted. Like right now. The car that Bruce and Dick had given him as a graduation present was proving to be a blessing, despite the twenty-minute lecture Bruce had given him on vehicular safety and just what he'd do to him if he was reckless while behind the wheel. Tim had believed every word, despite the stunts he'd seen Bruce pull in a car, both as Batman and as the playboy prince of Gotham. He knew his ass would be in a sling if he tried anything; it was just a question of who would get to him first – Bruce, Diana, Alfred, Dick, or the twins.

The weather was beautiful that Wednesday afternoon, so Tim drove through the outskirts of Gotham with his windows down and the radio blaring. Soon enough he was able to see Wayne Manor in the distance, high on its lonely bluff. Grinning, Tim glanced around and seeing no police patrol cars, he sped up a little. It was going to be great. Even with both Bruce and Diana off in London, he'd be more than entertained by whatever new insanity Sarah and Nick had concocted for the family.

Arriving at the gates, Tim pushed the proper button on his personal remote, which activated the sensors and opened the metal contraptions. As he drove past the gatehouse and up the driveway that would leave him right at the front door, though, something began to feel off to Tim. His arrival wasn't unexpected. He'd talked to Alfred the night before, telling him he'd be home around this time, and the twins had heard it while Alfred was still on the line with him. Their excited squeals had been loud, even through the phone. So when no little figures appeared outside to greet him as he drove up, Tim was confused.

He came to a halt just yards from the front door, and that was when Tim's stomach began to twist nervously. The large, heavy front doors were ajar. Alfred never, repeat, _never_ left them like that, and the twins certainly knew better than to do it either.

Tim's instincts were screaming warnings to him and he wasn't foolish enough to ignore them. Something was wrong. He reached for the glove compartment, which had a custom-made locking system on it, requiring a six-digit code to access it. He punched the code in and it opened, allowing him access to the weapons he kept there. He may have hung up his cape for the duration of his college career, but Tim wasn't about to go around defenseless. He pulled out several batarangs, as well as a few bolos.

He glanced out his window and gazed at the front of the house. It didn't appear that he was being monitored, so he got out and slowly made his way to the Manor's entrance. Slipping inside, Tim looked around the main foyer. There were no signs of a struggle, but the air didn't smell right. It was stale, off. He moved to the front drawing room and peered inside. Nothing there.

Next, he crossed the foyer and climbed the stairs, then looked into the study. The crumpled figure dressed in an all-too-familiar suit immediately caught his attention.

"Alfred," Tim breathed. Batarang and bolo now held at the ready, Tim darted inside, quickly scanning the room for any threats. Seeing none, he slowly knelt down beside the butler and touched his neck. Good, his pulse was strong and steady. He nudged him a little, calling out, "Alfred. Alfred, wake up."

The older man responded after a moment, groaning and starting to shake his head as he slowly started to regain his senses. Tim watched him push himself off his stomach and roll around to sit up straight. After a moment, he looked up. "M... Master Tim?"

"Alfred," Tim replied, "what happened? Where are Nick and Sarah?"

The butler's eyes widened. "Master Nick and Miss Sarah were in the kitchen, eating their lunch, when we heard and saw several vehicles converging on the house. We began to retreat to the study when they broke in. There were men, several of them, dressed in black, tactical vests and masks." He swallowed. "Then there was suddenly gas, gas everywhere."

Tim felt something in him go cold. This was not good. "Could... Could the twins have made it to the Cave? Could they have had time to hide?" he demanded.

"I do not know, Master Tim. It is all very blurry."

Tim nodded and stood up, turning toward the clock. It did not appear abused or damaged in any way. Turning the hands to the correct time, it swung open and Tim hurried down through the tunnel. He feverishly hoped the twins had made it down here, and had just been afraid to come back out, but at the same time, admitted silently that it was highly unlikely. The twins were hardly the fearful types, and there was absolutely no way they would have abandoned Alfred.

He stepped into the Cave. Everything was powered down. The computer, the lights, everything. His heart sinking, Tim still called out, "Sarah? Nick? It's Tim. It's okay, you can come out now."

No response.

_Oh God..._

Tim fought down the urge to panic. Panicking would do nothing to help the situation. He activated the lights and the Bat computer. He had to make sure Alfred was really all right, and he had to alert Dick, Babs, and the League of what had happened.

God, he had to tell Diana and Bruce that _their children_ had been _kidnapped_.

_Shit..._

_

* * *

_

The silence in the elevator was awkward. Whatever it was Bruce had been about to tell her at the London Eye, the interruption by the press seemed to have both annoyed him and robbed him of the necessary courage to tell her. Still, he wasn't attempting to put any distance between them, physically at least. In fact he was still stood close to her, and the protective arm he'd put on the small of her back hadn't moved either.

She leaned into him cautiously, gauging his reaction. Though he continued to stare somewhat moodily into the distance, he curled his arm a little further around her waist. She sighed, then turned to him. "Bruce, forget about it."

He frowned. "Forget about what?"

"Whatever your 'idiotic behaviour' was. I don't care," she said, meaning it. "You're here. I had a wonderful night. I don't want anything to spoil it."

He searched her face for a moment, his gaze cold and analytical. Batman deciding if she was telling the truth. Apparently he was satisfied, since he nodded. "Alright, Princess."

The doors dinged open, and he kissed her cheek and then opened the suite door for her.

In the middle of the room, Diana paused. Her bedroom was behind her; Bruce's bed was to her left. She didn't know if it was being here, or the champagne, or the ridiculously romantic evening they'd just spent... but things felt different. Like maybe for the first time since the twins were born that they might be able to move forward.

"Bruce."

He turned back to her. "Yes?"

"Thank you."

He raised an eyebrow.

"For coming with me," she elaborated. "You've made the last couple of days far more bearable than they would otherwise have been."

He smirked. "Only bearable?"

She smiled. "Enjoyable." Her smile faded a little, though she didn't take her eyes from his. "It reminded me..."

He took a stop closer. "Reminded you of what?"

"Of how good we are together," she said quietly. "How good we could be, if I'd let us."

He was much closer now, within touching distance. He did, reaching out and intertwining their fingers. "So are you going to let us?"

She didn't answer verbally, but leaned forward and kissed him softly, warmly. When she pulled back, her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were sad. "I'm sorry it took –"

He silenced her by catching her mouth again, exploring her lips gently with his before –

_Brrrrrrrrrrrrrring! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring! _

"Damn," Bruce muttered with a small apologetic smile, pulling out his phone. He frowned when he saw the caller-ID. "It's the Cave phone."

Diana drew back with a worried look. "The Cave? Dick?"

He opened the phone. "Dick?"

"_It's Tim," _a worried voice said quickly. "_You need to get back to Gotham. Now. It's –_"

"Why? What's happened?" Bruce demanded.

"Was there a break-out at Arkham?" Diana gasped.

"_It's Sarah and Nick. They've been kidnapped._"

* * *

**A/N: Told ya! Review please!**


	11. The Culprit

**A/N: Here you go! **

**Chapter Eleven - The Culprit**

It was on every news channel, from the local news to the big networks like CNN. It was big news when billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne's son and daughter were kidnapped. Even in other places, like Central City, it was being reported on.

_"That's right, Gale. If our viewers will recall, Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon released the information that six-year-olds Sarah and Nicholas Wayne were kidnapped out of their family home some time early Wednesday afternoon. The discovery was made by Timothy Drake, the children's older brother, who had come home from college to visit the family. His statement reports that he entered the home to find the family's trusted butler, Alfred Pennyworth, unconscious on the floor."_

The reporter, a lovely-looking woman in her mid-thirties, was either a convincing actor or she was genuinely worried.

_"The children's parents, Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince, world-renowned author, were in London when they were informed of their children's disappearance. They immediately returned to Gotham. Yesterday evening, they gave a statement."_

The screen shifted to a recording, one already seen by millions, but was fast becoming as recognizable as shots of the President or the Justice League Metro Tower. Standing behind a podium, with camera lights flashing constantly, were Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince. He stood on her left, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, while her right arm was across her body, grasping his jacket in crushing, desperate fingers. They each looked a mess. Both of their faces were white as sheets. Diana's eyes were red-rimmed, no doubt from crying, and in no way resembled the quiet but poised author she was. Bruce looked nothing like the suave, fast-talking playboy he was known country-wide to act like.

In short, they looked like two people going through every parent's worst nightmare.

_"If anyone has any information, please call the police department's hotline,"_ Bruce said, his voice incredibly shaky. _"All calls are confidential, and you will remain anonymous if that is your wish."_

_"Please,"_ Diana spoke up, tears still thick in her tone. _"Help us find our children. Plea-"_

The television clicked off, allowing the tiny office to go silent. The room's lone occupant shook her head. It was terrible, what those two were enduring, an ordeal she would not wish on anyone. Well, maybe Lex Luthor. She'd wish just about _anything_ on that bastard. Still, the two shattered people she had just seen on the television did not deserve what they were going through.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

"Come in."

A technician opened the door. "Ma'am? We've finished the first round of genetic tests."

"Good. Let's see what we've got to work with," she said, standing up from behind her desk. Amanda Waller followed the technician out of the room, steadfastly doing her very best to ignore the stirrings of her conscience.

* * *

**A/N: Review please! **


	12. Searching

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Here's the next chapter. **

**Chapter Twelve - Searching**

Diana hadn't known she could cry this much. It didn't seem possible that there was this much water in her body in order for it to be sobbed out. She stopped every so often, for a few minutes or once even up to an hour – but then she'd walk past the twins' bedroom, or there would be a commercial on TV for one of their favourite shows, and she would start crying all over again.

She and Bruce had never relied so heavily on one another – she didn't want to eat, or sleep, or do anything except tear the world apart to find her babies. She knew Bruce was the same. Equally, however, she wanted to make sure _he _ate, and _he _slept. Since he appeared to have the same thoughts about her, they were both eating and sleeping. Not much, but a couple of hours in twenty-four could hardly make a difference, so she kept telling herself. It was an argument that was violently rejected by every maternal instinct she had.

It had been more than twenty-four hours, with no ransom demand, and no groups claiming responsibility. It only made both of them more terrified. The military style of the kidnap and the weaponry used had suggested that this hadn't been managed by someone without money anyway, and the amount of time that had passed with no word – and there had been no word, despite the dozens of appeals she and Bruce had made via the media – put forward only one conclusion: that Sarah and Nick had been taken not because their father was the richest man in the continental US and their mother a successful woman in her own right, but because their father was Batman and their mother Wonder Woman. Which made it all a whole lot worse.

Anyone who knew the identities of she and Bruce was someone with power, someone with a grudge to settle, someone who could very well be sending them packages containing tiny limbs in the mail –

"Diana?"

She jumped at the touch on her back, turning to Bruce. He was in the suit, but his cowl was down. Diana hadn't taken her uniform off either – she had to be ready, just in case. "What is it?"

He gently wiped her cheeks free of tears before he replied. "Clark's here."

"And?" she asked sharply. "Did he find anything?"

"No, and combined with the evidence we've already got, it's not Luthor."

His voice was totally devoid of emotion, as it had been since they'd started this...case. She knew it was his coping mechanism, but the longer it went on, the more it angered her. In her darker moments, she found herself seriously wondering if her was fully aware that these were _their _children. She had said nothing of this to Bruce or anywhere else; it was spectacularly unfair. Besides, he hadn't been as calm as this during those first twenty-four hours. Diana was very well aware that he'd gone on a tear through Gotham, demanding answers out of anyone who came to his attention in his search. Dick, Tim, and Barbara had been right behind him the entire time. She also knew that the latter two had had to pull the former two off the Joker when he dared to laugh. The Clown Prince was now in the medical wing of Arkham, with seven broken bones and a brain injury, and probably-temporary amnesia. He had no clue where the twins were, or – thankfully – who Batman was.

"Come down to the Cave."

She nodded, and began walking away from the children's bedroom. Bruce caught her elbow. "You have to leave that here, Princess."

She looked down; she was holding Sarah's laptop tightly to her chest. "Oh. I forgot." She kept wandering in and picking things up. Last night she'd slept with Nick's baby blanket. She moved back inside, forcing purpose into her step. Her arms seemed to be moving independently, tearing the computer away and putting it down on the desk.

Then she moved back to Bruce, letting him take her hand. When they got down to the Cave, Clark and Nightwing were by the computer, Superman relaying everything he'd gleaned from Luthor and the other people he'd investigated in Metropolis.

He smiled kindly at Diana. "How are you?"

"Have you found my children yet?" she asked, voice raw.

He looked down. "No."

"Then I think your question's redundant. What about Luthor?"

"It's not him."

She nodded, taking a deep breath and now feeling guilty. "Sorry," she said softly.

He moved forward, hugging her. "It's okay."

"Are Michaela and Jonathan safe?"

"Yes. They're onboard the Watchtower."

"We sent out a general alert to all League members," Bruce informed her. "The ones who couldn't get their kids to the Metrotower have been offered places on the Watchtower. The Flash twins and the Stewarts are up there too. Helena managed to persuade Vic that it was the safest place for Olivia too."

Diana nodded. At least the twelve-month-old toddler wouldn't be scared. She imagined that Rex and Kyra would be terrified, especially if their parents had not managed to block the news of what had happened to Sarah and Nick from reaching their ears. Isabelle and Iris were probably still a little young – though they were perceptive kids. If Wally was tense, they usually sensed it too.

"Do we have any leads at all?"

"We're waiting on J'onn to get back to us – he tracked down several Legion members and interrogated them. So far no luck."

"There is another possibility too," Dick pointed out.

"Which is?" Diana demanded.

He turned to the computer, bringing up a personnel file. Hers, to be exact, followed by another personnel file – this time _not _one of the League. "Hades."

"How dare you even–"

Dick cut her off. "It's a possibility, isn't it?"

She opened her mouth to issue an angry denial, but faltered. "It's possible," she nodded. "But it's also not the way the gods do business."

"Ares did."

"It is not the way _Hades _does business. If he wanted to inflict damage upon me, it would be by his own hand, and in front of my face. I understand why you're going down this route, but you're wrong." The irony that she was actually _defending_ Hades from the charge was not lost on her, as repugnant as Diana found it. Still, even with the reasons that she had given Dick, she just _knew_ that Hades had not stretched forth his hand to bring harm to her children, his _grandch_–

Diana forced herself to cut the thought off.

Dick nodded thoughtfully. "If you're sure."

"I am," she declared. "Mortal men took Sarah and Nicholas."

J'onn's face appeared on the massive monitor. "Batman, Diana. We've interrogated the suspects we have; none of them know anything about the kidnapping."

"Thank you, J'onn," Bruce said, dismissing the call. His voice was even as he continued. "Now, according to Diana's logic, we're looking at either a private army or a small country using its own special forces. If we assume that, there are several companies in the US that could be responsible – genetics, struggling firms et cetera. Or, if it's a country, we start looking at the less economically fortunate."

His fingers were moving as he spoke, and he pulled up a map of a country Diana recognised, highlighting military bases. "Kasnia?" she asked incredulously. "Audrey is Sarah's godmother, Bruce! There's no way she's involved. She would never do anything to hurt them."

"I'm not suggesting she would," he replied calmly, "but as we've seen in the past, Audrey is not always aware of her own country's dealings. Vandal Savage proves that."

Diana's fists curled. "And you don't think she might have learned from that? That she might not have _grown_?"

"I'm not counting on it."

It went on. Endless lists of organisations and nations with a grudge to bear, all of them carefully analysed and examined. All with a completely impassive expression, all with a voice that never wavered. Diana wasn't sure what was the final straw, but suddenly she lost her patience.

"Damn it, Bruce, how can you be so _calm_?!" she yelled, picking up whatever was nearest her hand and throwing it across the Cave.

It happened to be the Batwing.

Bruce stood up sharply, making Clark and Dick both flinch. "Excuse us, gentlemen," he growled.

They all left fairly quickly, leaving Bruce facing a barely-holding-it-together Diana. Her chest was heaving, her balled fists trembling, and her eyes were glittering both with unshed tears and rage.

He shoved the cowl back. "You think I'm _calm_?" he asked quietly.

"You seem to be doing a good impression of serenity," she answered in a shaking voice.

Just like that, the shell of cool cracked. Faster than she could blink, he was in front of her, grasping her upper arms hard. "I am the furthest from calm I have ever been in my entire life, Diana, don't you dare for one _second _think otherwise," he snarled.

"So why can't you–"

"What am I supposed to do? At least this way I might make some headway, and it's better than just _standing_ here snivelling."

She opened her mouth to protest, but now that she'd started him off, he wasn't about to stop. "What do you _want _me to do, Diana? What do you _want _from me?"

She broke his hold on her arms, but a sob flew from her mouth before words could. "I _want _you to stop pretending that Batman is the only one who can do anything. I _want _you, for five minutes, to be the father of my children–!"

She couldn't carry on without the tears that were threatening taking over. Before all of this, she would have refused to cry in front of a man, but now it didn't matter. She threw her arms around Bruce's shoulders, and she found they were shaking with sobs too.

Diana got her wish. For five minutes, they weren't Wonder Woman and Batman. They were the very frightened parents of very absent children. For five minutes, they only held each other, and wept.

When they finally pulled themselves together and went upstairs, they found Clark, Dick, Tim and Alfred in the drawing room. As soon as they sat down, Alfred pushed two cups of tea in front of them.

Diana took hers and sipped with a weak smile. "Thank you, Alfred."

Tim launched straight in. "What about Sarah's powers?" he asked, tone forcibly optimistic. "Have they come out yet? I mean, if they have then she might be able to..."

Diana shook her head. "No," she said hoarsely. "They haven't."

"If I may, Miss Diana," Alfred spoke up, "I'm not sure they ever will."

Bruce frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Nicholas can fly," he said, nodding as both parents' jaws dropped. "And from what the children hinted at, I believe he has the rest of your powers as well."

Diana attempted to pull her jaw off the floor. "But...he's male, how can that be?"

There was silence; Alfred's announcement, while it was shocking and unexpected, wasn't really of much help. Regardless of which of her children was blessed by the gods, those same gods had chosen to abandon both him and herself now. Her children were still gone, and Diana refused to let the hope that he might be able to escape using his powers grow. It was too tempting. If whoever had taken them had done so because they knew who she and Bruce were, then it was likely they'd know there was a chance Sarah and Nicky could share her gifts. Her son wouldn't be able to escape. No, it was up to the League to get her children back, even if... She forced herself to think it, even as grief and rage clawed at her lungs. _Even if they are already dead._

Knowing what she was thinking, Bruce's eyes met hers as he took her hand and stood up. He didn't let go all the way down to the Batcave, no matter how hard she was squeezing his fingers. "We'll be able to do more on the Watchtower," he said, ordering a transport up.

Alfred regarded them with terrified but kind eyes. "You'll find them, Miss Diana, Master Bruce. Alive and well."

Diana nodded, glancing at Bruce. He only pulled the cowl up, clenching his jaw. She could tell he didn't believe that – and he had to, just as much as she did. She put both hands on his shoulders. "No. We _will _find them, Bruce." He _had_ to believe it. To believe anything else would mean madness for both of them. The world would not be able to withstand a Batman and Wonder Woman driven insane from grief.

Finally, he nodded. "I know," he said hoarsely.

She embraced him, and they were beamed onto the Watchtower like that. No one batted an eyelid at Batman hugging Wonder Woman. Bruce let them all know that pity would not be tolerated with a Batglare, then stepped off the teleporter platform, heading for where the Question was waiting. "What have we got so far?"

* * *

Shayera couldn't know how Diana felt. She didn't _want_ to know, but she ended up knowing anyway – through the empty, desolate look in Diana eyes. She had _nothing_ unless she had her kids. And that, Shayera understood perfectly. Because when she held Rex and Kyra, newborn, in her arms, she understood that her entire life had been leading to that moment. That all the events in her life made sense now, even the invasion, and even her relationship with Hro - it was all adding up, like grains of sand trickling through to fill an hourglass.

All her life. Leading to Rex and Kyra.

So Shayera watched as Diana continued to pace the conference room. She watched all her muscles tense as the princess struggled constantly not to scream or destroy anything she could see just to try to force the sense of continued panic out of her body. Nearly everyone had ceased trying to comfort her, to offer her meaningless words of reassurance. Shayera hadn't even done so in the beginning, had only given her a brief squeeze around the shoulders before she got to work. She knew Diana didn't want words, useless platitudes. She wanted her babies back in her arms, right now.

Clark and J'onn stood over the computer terminal on the other side of the room, discussing something in hushed tones, but both women ignored them. Shayera sat silently at the table, tapping her fingers endlessly on the surface of the table. There was no point in talk of any kind. Unless they knew where Sarah and Nick were _this second_, there just wasn't. Speaking in general was pretty much beyond Diana at this point. She hadn't even been able to send a message to her mother; Shayera had done that for her.

Queen Hippolyta's reaction hadn't been pleasant, to say the least. The Amazon Queen had sworn viciously in Ancient Greek, and had offered to bring a contingent of Amazons to assist in the search. Shayera had managed to get her to hold off, at least for now, to give the League a chance to find the twins. Things were bad enough with Diana's sanity holding on by mere threads. Add a few dozen Amazon warriors to the mix, all of them bent on obtaining vengeance for their princess' children? Shayera had no doubt that Diana would probably snap, and rip the world to shreds in order to find them.

Finally though, even she couldn't stand it anymore. Diana couldn't see her children; Shayera had to see hers. Without a word to anyone else, she left the conference room and almost ran to Dormitory Deck A. Then she opened the door.

She'd only been in the room for five seconds, and already there were tears building in her eyes. She clamped a hand over her mouth, stifling the oncoming sob.

Inside, one of the small forms stirred in the bed. Shayera couldn't stand it anymore – she ran to the beside, pulled her babies into her arms. Since there had been no ransom demands on Nick and Sarah for Bruce's money, the only conclusion that could be reached was that it was because they were the children of Leaguers. That meant they were all at risk. Even in the Watchtower there wasn't enough room for them, so some were holed up in the Metrotower. For Shayera and John, for Clark and Wally, for Helena and Vic, that hadn't been enough. Sure, the Metrotower was the most secure building on Earth – but it was _on _Earth. Here, no one could reach them. _No one _could. And even then she wasn't sure.

At their mother suddenly yanking them into a tight hug, both Rex and Kyra woke complaining.

"Ow! Mom, can't _breathe_ –"

"Hey, I was sleeping –"

Abruptly they both realised that she was crying, and began hugging back. After a few minutes, Rex spoke again, "Mom... they haven't found Nick and Sarah, have they?"

Shayera shook her head. "No, baby. They haven't."

Kyra started to cry too. Shayera stroked down her hair. "They will, honey, they will," she murmured.

She just prayed she was right.

* * *

Diana had moved to the commissary a while ago. That was her plan for the next few hours – keep moving around from place to place in the Watchtower until something happened. The leads she'd been following herself had proven useless, and she hadn't bothered to pray. The goddesses had abandoned her the moment they let someone take her children.

Batman entered the commissary long enough to grab an espresso and sit down next to her. "We have a new lead," he said quietly. "The tyre marks from the manor's lawn; they're not standard issue Hummer. They're custom-rims, made in only one place on the East Coast. Only half a dozen corporations in the country use them, and they all check out, except one. It lead to a fake mailing address in Oregon."

She shook her head. "But if it's fake then how–"

"Question's working on it. Flash is helping since he can type faster than anyone else. Clark is...standing there." He took a deep breath. "There has to be a link somewhere, Princess," he said quietly, taking her head. "And we'll find it. And then we'll find Sarah and Nick."

She nodded numbly, unable to allow herself to summon hope. "Is there anything I can do?"

"You can come..."

"Watch?" She sighed, nodding. "It's better than nothing."

They walked inside just in time to see Flash racing out. He got twenty yards past them before zipping back. "We got it! Question found the location – it's an old Cadmus facility, outside Central City."

Diana's heart sped up and she quickly started toward the door. "Let's go then," she ordered. The doors opened and she started to walk through them–

A hand grasped her wrist and pulled her to a halt.

"Diana, wait," Clark said. "We need a plan."

She glared at him. "I should think the plan was obvious, Clark. Get in there and pull my children out."

"And if we meet resistance?" J'onn asked softly from behind Clark.

She turned to the Martian. "Then they will learn, firsthand, why mothers are the fiercest creatures in nature." Diana then wrenched her arm free and stormed out, not bothering to see if the three men behind her followed. Bruce appeared in front of her just outside the hangar.

"Ready?" he demanded, his voice colder than the Arctic.

Diana nodded and matched his tone. "Let's go."

She didn't know who the people were who had stolen her children, and if they attempted to stop her from taking them back, they would _suffer_ for it. That, by Nemesis, she promised.

* * *

**A/N: Review please!**


	13. The Rescue

**A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews! And thank you too to my amazing beta, AngelQueen.**

**Chapter Thirteen - The Rescue**

When Sarah woke up, she quickly became aware that her head was aching and her left arm was stinging. Had she fallen out of bed at some point during the night? No, it hadn't been night, last she remembered. It had been lunch time. Alfred had made she and Nicky sandwiches and some fruit pieces, and then later caught Nicky _flying_ to get to the cookies. Then there...had been..._ The sound of a helicopter..._

The sound of the doors bursting open, slamming into the walls. The white smoke, the men in masks. The study. Alfred falling. Nicky throwing them both out the window. Being surrounded. The sting in her arm. Then, nothing.

Until now.

The sound of shoes squeaking on the floor reached Sarah's ears. Her heart pounded against her chest and she opened her eyes.

The room was all white. The lights were really bright. There were lots of machines around her. She even saw a long stand like those she saw in hospitals, only it was connected to her left arm. That explained the sting. Sarah began to breathe faster.

Another machine was just above her, with little sensor things sticking out of it and connecting to her head. Sarah began to tremble.

Squeaking shoes again. Sarah's eyes went down to the foot of the bed. There were three people standing there, all in white coats, like doctors. She didn't know any of them.

All the warnings Mommy and Daddy had given her and Nicky about strangers, and how they should never talk to them or go anywhere with them, flooded Sarah's mind. She couldn't keep herself from whimpering.

That turned out to be a mistake, because it drew their attention. The three people stared at her, their eyes widening. "Shit, she's awake," one of them said.

Sarah didn't pay them any attention. She was with people she didn't know. Her parents weren't there with her, and neither was Alfred. Nicky wasn't with her either.

It was all too much.

"_Mommy! Daddy!_"

* * *

When the Justice League attacked, they didn't do it by half-measures. Being a group full of metahumans who all had a wide range of abilities made them one of the most versatile armies on the planet. It was that fact that had scared quite a few people over the years, including the people who had built this place. Ironic, since Cadmus' worst fear seemed to be coming true - those metahumans were able to use their various abilities in different ways to aid in the attack. Very effectively.

The building itself was practically a cliché, Green Arrow thought as he followed just behind Wonder Woman down a series of corridors. Long, barren hallways, harsh, bright lights, everything looking pretty much the same. Why couldn't the bad guys be a little more original?

The teams assigned to actually storm the building had split up early on, each taking a different wing of the place. In the case of his team, it was really more like Wonder Woman was searching their assigned wing, while the rest of them followed behind and took out the odd bogey that she might have missed.

Suddenly, Wonder Woman stopped, nearly causing Green Arrow to crash into her back. He opened his mouth to demand what was wrong, when the sound began to register with his hearing. Crying, no, _screaming_. Someone was terrified out of their minds.

"Sarah," he heard Diana breathe. He didn't even get a chance to respond before she bolted down the hallway.

"Damn it," Green Arrow muttered as he ran after her. Behind him, Canary and Vixen scrambled to follow. He pulled out an arrow and got it ready as the screams grew louder. Diana suddenly came to a halt at one door in particular. Green Arrow was sure they'd found one of their targets. Sarah Wayne's shrill cries were loud and clear even if you didn't have superpowers.

One solid punch from the Amazon Princess was all it took to knock the door off its hinges and the four of them poured into the room. Green Arrow became aware of several things almost instantly as he took in his surroundings.

Sarah Wayne was strapped to a bed, her cheeks red and wet with tears and various machines connected to her.

She wasn't alone. There were three men in there with her, all looking like typical cliché doctors.

One was standing right next to the IV stand. He had a syringe in his hand, and he was raising it to the line.

"Whoa!" Green Arrow shouted. He raised his bow and pulled the string, ready to let the arrow fly. "Put it down, pal! Don't even fucking kid around with me!"

The man took one look at the four heroes glaring at him and paled. The syringe fell from his fingers and he raised his hands. "We just do what we're told," he started blabbing. "We're only doing our jobs!"

"Get away from that child," Diana growled from beside Green Arrow. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the other two men were practically cowering next to Vixen and Canary. It didn't escape his attention that their terror was directed at Diana.

She regarded them with eyes incandescent with rage. Her voice trembled with it when she spoke. "Now. _Run_," she hissed.

They didn't need telling twice, and all three of them bolted. Vixen and Dinah rolled their eyes at each other, and then headed after them. Ollie heard the scream a few seconds later, and knew that the three doctors would need stays in hospital themselves.

He also knew that Diana hadn't even heard the Canary's cry. She was wholly focused on her daughter. "Sarah!"

"Mommy!" the little girl sobbed.

Diana wasn't far off tears herself, and pressed trembling kisses to her daughter's face. "Oh my darling, my little star, I'm here, you're okay, you're safe now, I'm here."

Ollie approached. "Hold still, Sarah," he said quietly, pulling the needle from her arm carefully as Diana removed the sensors from her head. He had to admit that she was handling it well – now that she knew she'd be rescued, the tears had stopped, even if the trembling hadn't.

"Mommy!" Then the little girl flew into her mother's arms, hugging her as if she'd never be pried away from Diana again. Ollie couldn't blame her. If it had been his son... He wasn't sure he could have shown Diana's restraint, and let them go.

Diana closed her eyes and just hugged her daughter, stroking her hair and smothering her with kisses. Both of them were shaking visibly, and though Sarah was no longer sobbing, tiny whimpers kept issuing from her mouth. Diana whispered lowly, in a tongue Ollie didn't recognise. Themysciran, he assumed. Whatever it was, it seemed to calm the little girl down, and gradually she relaxed, even managing a smile up at her mother. Diana beamed back. If ever there was a picture for the definition of 'relief', this was it.

When they pulled apart, it was Sarah who drew back first. "Where's Nicky? And Daddy?"

"Daddy's looking for your brother now, little star."

Sarah nodded, and then turned and hugged Green Arrow. "Thanks, Uncle Ollie," she whispered.

He raised an eyebrow at Diana. "Should I be surprised that she figured it out?"

The Amazon shook her head with a rueful smile.

Sarah let go of him and tugged on Diana's hand. "Come on, Mommy, let's go find Daddy and Nicky!"

Both adults heard the desperation in her voice, but neither of them wanted to break the thin crust of control she'd managed to put on. Diana only nodded and picked her daughter up. "If there are more bad guys, then you find somewhere quiet to hide until I come get you, okay?"

Sarah nodded. "Okay, Mommy."

"I mean it, Sarah. I'm not losing you again."

"I know, Mommy. I'll do what you said," she said earnestly. She wrapped her arms around Diana's shoulders tightly.

Diana closed her eyes briefly as Sarah's familiar weight settled against her hip. Oh Hera, she'd never take moments like this for granted ever again. They'd be a family – Bruce had Nicholas, she knew he did, and then it would be alright. They would take their children back to Gotham. No more broken homes. No splitting their time between the gate-house and the Manor. She and Bruce would have to talk once they were all home. The talk they'd been avoiding for years.

She opened her eyes to see Ollie looking back at her compassionately. "Let's go," she said.

* * *

Never fight in anger.

That was the rule. Once you lost your temper, you were vulnerable, and if the opponent had any level of skill, then it was only matter of time before you were unconscious or dead.

Batman had long given up any hope of keeping a rein on his temper. Unconsciousness was the only mercy these people deserved; broken bones and internal bleeding were simply justice.

Without Alfred's information, that Nick had Diana's powers and not Sarah, it might have taken twice as long to locate his son. Instead, all they needed to do was locate the source of the most power consumption in the complex. It took no time at all to hack into the computer and find it, and then they started moving in that direction. The guards had guns; Bruce had Clark. Neither of them bothered with subtlety. Wally disarmed most of the guards before they had a chance to fire, and the ones who did found their bullets literally bouncing off Superman's chest. Then they found their heads being slammed against walls, or their collarbones being crushed, their tracheas being compressed by Batman or Nightwing.

Thankfully, no one had questioned Nightwing's presence on what was, officially, a League matter, this being a former Cadmus base and all. Bruce had no patience for questions at the best of times, and this, certainly, was not the best of times. A guard tried to rush him; he went down with a shattered nose and probably a concussion.

The guards got thicker in number the closer the League got to Nick; the weapons got bigger, but nothing stopped them. He was protected well; by the time they'd got all the people out of the way, there were motion-sensor machine guns, nerve gas pellets that almost took down Shayera, and then a ten-thousand volt security field surrounding the cell.

If he'd had Kent's strength, Bruce would have smashed straight through the door; as it was, he had to make do with an exploding batarang. Inside was a cube constructed of steel and glass, medical devices of every description pointed into the centre, only some of which Bruce recognised. There were a lot he didn't too, including some kind of drilling detachment that could have come straight out of a horror film.

In the very centre of the cell was a steel table. Strapped to it, as well as being wrapped in some kind of straitjacket, was Nicholas. He wasn't conscious, and his face was white. He looked like–

_No, no, no, no, no, no… _

When Batman ripped the restraints off, and found Nick was not only warm but breathing too, it felt like every bone in his body _melted_ with relief.

"Nick? Nick, can you hear me? Open your eyes? Nick!"

Nothing, but that could just mean sedation. They'd have had to sedate him — a terrified child with Diana's strength could break bones, even kill, effortlessly. To be on the safe side–

"_Diana to Batman._"

"Here," he said quickly. "Sarah?"

"_I have her, she's safe. Have you found–_"

"Yeah, Nick's here. He's out of it, but he's okay."

"_Thank Hera. Where can we meet?_"

"We're at opposite ends of the complex; I'll meet you in the middle."

"_On our way._"

He had no doubt that Diana would be flying as fast as she could to get to them, but until Nick woke up, Bruce wouldn't be sprinting anywhere. He gathered his son up, and felt another little surge of relief as Nick's limbs wrapped unconsciously around his father's shoulders. It wouldn't be long before he woke.

His best friend was smiling when Bruce turned around, his posture and expression much more Clark than Superman. Bruce couldn't stop the echoing smile. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

Clark shifted back again, and nodded shortly. "I'll scour the rest of this place for anyone we've missed. Then when everyone's evacuated we can burn this place to the ground."

"_After _we scour it for evidence and anything we've missed," Batman reminded him.

Clark sighed, another slightly wistful grin on his face. "Yes, Batman. After we scour it for evidence."

Bruce nodded, and then carried Nick carefully into the corridors of the complex. They didn't get very far when Diana appeared, cradling Sarah like she was the most precious thing in the world. The moment she saw her son, unconscious but safe in his father's arms, she flew towards them, pausing only long enough to set Sarah down. "Is he alright?" she demanded tearfully.

Bruce's voice was shaky, but his relief hadn't yet faded. "He's fine."

"Oh thank Hera," Diana whispered, taking her son.

Sarah waited only until her brother had been transferred from one parent to the other before throwing herself into her father's arms. "Daddy!"

He knelt down and hugged her to him tightly while her composure finally broke, and she burst into tears. "I woke up and I didn't know where I was and Nicky was gone and there were all these strangers and there was a needle in my arm and sensors on my head and I was so scared, Daddy, and is Alfred alright, oh God they killed him didn't they, they killed Alfred, Daddy–"

He shook his head and made gentle shushing sounds. "No, Sarah, he's fine. He's okay, sweetie, I promise."

She sniffed. "Really?"

"Really," he smiled. "He's at home, waiting for you."

"And… you and Mommy are going to get us out of here, right?"

His mouth thinned. "Right. We're all getting out here now."

She nodded, but didn't release or lessen her hold on him. He had to strain to hear what she whispered. "I was scared, Daddy."

He felt another surge of fury at these Cadmus bastards. Scared. Sarah was scared. Sarah _never _got scared. She got frustrated, she got hysterical, she got enraged, she had not once, in her entire life, gotten as terrified as she was now. These monsters had damaged her sense of safety, possibly in a way that could never be fully put to right. He pulled her closer. "It's okay, Sarah. People all get scared sometimes."

_Like when you're told your children are gone..._

In Diana's arms, Nick stirred and slowly opened his eyes, squinting in the bright lights of the hallway. Having never seen his mother without her glasses or in her armour, he frowned. "Mom?" he asked uncertainly.

She nodded with still-watering eyes. "It's me, little sun."

He swallowed hard, refusing to admit he was crying, but put his arms around his mom's neck tightly. "Why didn't you tell me you're Wonder Woman?" he asked. "I mean, we already knew, but –"

He cut off Diana's question when he caught sight of his sister. "Uh, Sarah? Why're you hugging Batman?"

At this, both Diana and Bruce's relief caught up to them, and they burst into laughter. Sarah only looked furious when she looked up at her twin. "Why do you think, Nicky?! It's Daddy, you idiot!"

* * *

The flashing lights of squad cars could be seen almost from miles around, as could the parked Javelin aircrafts. It was a rural area, so the only people that should have been anywhere near the place were the occasional farmer family, but most likely all of those families were safe and asleep in their beds.

Amanda Waller watched the scene in the distance from her car. She'd left the place just in time, mere minutes before the Justice League had started their raid. She sighed. That resource was gone. The place would be picked clean by the end of the week by the League, the local law enforcement, and probably the government as well. Still, it wasn't the last of its kind. There were still a few little places squirreled away around the country.

This was a serious setback. Waller was under no illusions that she'd be able to get a hold of the Wayne twins again. Wayne and his princess were on to the fact that someone wanted their children, and she had no doubt that Wayne was going to turn his house into a veritable fortress in order to protect them. It was almost a shame. If the few test results she had seen were any indication of those children's potential...

On the other hand, Waller could admit that a part of her was glad that the League had found the place. Most likely Wayne and Her Highness had gotten their hands on the twins by now. Maybe now her conscience would stop bothering her.

Her cell rang. She glanced at the caller identification, and then picked it up. "Waller." She paused, and then, "Yes, I know. I'm watching it happen right now." Another pause. "They aren't looking for me. Batman has no idea that I'm involved." Which was probably a good thing, or else this night might be the one time that Batman would resort to murder.

Waller nodded. "Yes, Plan B's been scrubbed. We'll have to go to Plan C. Tell our people in Portland to get ready." She then closed the phone, not waiting for a response. She watched the movement in the distance for another moment, and she finally started her car up. She drove away from the place, careful to keep her lights off until she was back on the main highway.

* * *

Sarah didn't want to let go of Daddy. She didn't want Mommy and Nicky to go anywhere either. All four of them could stay right together now, and then they could all go together to get Tim and Dick and Alfred. Then it could just be the seven of them. Maybe Auntie Babs too.

Still, Sarah had to admit, she was curious to see what was happening as Mommy and Daddy carried she and Nicky out of the building. As long as she didn't have to move from where she was, wrapped in Daddy's cape, Sarah felt safe enough to look around.

She had figured out who her parents were some time ago, but it was one thing to _know_ her parents were members of the Justice League, and quite another to see the other League members all milling about.

There was Auntie Shay, shouting at someone while hauling one of the bad men in white coats towards one of the waiting police cars. She knew that Auntie Shay was Hawkgirl, knew the story Mommy had told her and Nicky about how Hawkgirl had gotten hurt saving Mommy once and how Mommy had helped her until they could get to a hospital and how they'd become friends and how Mommy had made Hawkgirl Nicky's godmommy. Sarah shook her head. That Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl were friends and Wonder Woman wanted her friend to be godmommy to one of her kids made more sense.

Then she spotted Uncle Clark coming out of the building, carrying two slumped figures. Her eyes widened. So it was _Uncle Clark_ that was Superman! Sarah couldn't help but feel a little disgusted with herself for not making the connection before. It wasn't as if they looked all that different.

She'd probably best not mention it to Nicky. He'd just laugh at her.

Sarah closed her eyes and leaned her head against Daddy's chest. She knew she'd been sleeping for a while, that the bad men had been making her and Nicky both sleep for a while now, but she was _tired_.

"Batman?"

Sarah's eyes shot open and she peered in the direction of the voice. She recognized him. It was Commissioner Gordon, Babs' daddy. He helped Daddy fight crime in Gotham. What was he doing here? Sarah was pretty sure they weren't anywhere near Gotham.

The old man caught her looking at him and smiled gently at her. "We can take them from here if you like," he said. "I know Mr. Wayne and Miss Prince are probably on pins and needles for these two to come home."

Oh. That was right. No one knew that they were already _with_ Mommy and Daddy. Sarah didn't want to leave, but there were their secret identities to consider. She bit her lip.

"It's all right, younglings," Mommy spoke up. "Commissioner Gordon will get you home to your parents." Sarah could see the shaky look on Mommy's face and knew she didn't want to let them go either.

* * *

Several moments passed before Nick nodded shakily, swallowing as his mother put him down. He knew that they had to go with the Commissioner. Sarah knew it too, but for once she didn't seem to be acknowledging what she knew. Instead, she whimpered and tightened her grip on their father. Nick knew that if push came to shove, Dad would reveal who he was rather than make his little girl let go.

"Sarah, come on," he whispered. "We need to go home."

He stretched out his hand, and when she took it, hers was trembling badly, and tears were still pouring silently down her cheeks.

Nick managed to look up at Batman and Wonder Woman – he had to keep calling them that, or he'd never make it – and nod. "T-thanks for rescuing us," he stammered.

He saw Mom bite her lip and she nodded too. Sarah, apparently, couldn't help herself. She ran back to Dad and hugged him tightly. "Thank you."

Nick just barely heard what else she whispered. "Be at the airport, or else."

Nick almost wanted to laugh, but he took his sister's hand again and tugged her over to where Commissioner Gordon was waiting. They got into the squad car without looking back at their parents.

Sarah's breathing was erratic for most of the trip to the airport. Nick kept a close watch on her. He could tell she was a hair away from completely losing control. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her close. Sarah, in turn, buried her face in his shoulder. "Want Daddy 'n Mommy," she mumbled against him.

Nick nodded. So did he. He wasn't the only one who heard her though, and Commissioner Gordon turned around from the front seat. The white-haired man smiled gently at them. "Don't worry, kids," he said, "the plane ride isn't too long from here to Gotham. Your parents will be right there waiting for you."

"Yes sir," Nick replied. He felt Sarah nod too, but she didn't say anything. He had a feeling she would probably fall asleep pretty soon. He didn't think he was too far behind. His eyes kept getting heavier.

* * *

Vicki Vale was pretty sure that just about every member of the press in Gotham had turned up at the airport, along with a fair number of out-of-towners too. It hadn't taken long for word to leak out that the Justice League had, in the midst of investigating rumors of an old Cadmus lab, found the kidnapped Wayne twins. That's when things started happening really fast. Old Man Gordon had taken the first flight available to Central City and now was rumored to be coming back with the kids in tow.

Given the fact that both Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince were standing at the gate with expressions of mingled impatience and desperation, Vicki was betting that it was far more than rumor. Neither parent had so much as blinked in quite a while, nor had they released their grips on each other's hands.

The plane had landed a few minutes ago and the flight workers were now just opening the doors. Vicki could feel practically everyone holding their breaths. First Gordon appeared, with Renee Montoya just behind him. There was a moment – everyone tensed – and suddenly two little children appeared, clad in grubby little scrubs. Few people noticed Harvey Bullock bringing up the rear as cheers broke out among the press.

Still, that was nothing compared to the blissful cries Wayne and Prince let out at the sight of their children. Both adults rushed forward at the same moment that the twins bolted past Gordon and Montoya, each child leaping into their parents' outstretched arms.

Vicki watched for several moments, and felt her eyes begin to sting with tears. Next to her, her photographer lifted his camera, but Vicki reached out and pushed it down. "Give them a few moments, Phil," she said, loud enough for him and her other colleagues to hear her. She was glad they took her advice, and no cameras began to flash rapidly.

There was a time and a place for getting the scoop, Vicki knew, but there was also common courtesy. This family had just walked through an unspeakable hell. They deserved a moment to collect themselves as they walked out of it. Besides, it just didn't seem..._right_ to take pictures of Bruce Wayne crying unashamedly into his daughter's hair.

* * *

"Come on, Sarah," Bruce whispered, tears still running down his cheeks. Batman was safely stowed away; now as a father he could let the emotion out without compromising anything. To be honest, he wasn't sure that he wouldn't be crying even with the cowl still on. "Let's go home."

She nodded tearfully. "Thanks, Daddy. I..."

"What, sweetie?" he asked, stroking her wet hair.

She sniffed, wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "I don't wanna live in two places anymore. It's not- It's not safe without you _and _Mommy there. Don't... You can't waste time anymore," she whispered.

Bruce nodded, hugging his daughter again. "I know, sweetie. I know."

* * *

**A/N: Review please!**


	14. Today's Special

**A/N: Thank you to my reviewers and thank you to Angel Queen, my wonderful beta. **

**Chapter Fourteen - Today's Special **

When the twins had gotten home, 'joyful' hadn't been the word to describe the atmosphere in the house. Everyone was ecstatic to have them back, and they'd both leapt on Alfred, who for once in Bruce's entire memory had lost his British reserve and was in there with them now, grinning like a lunatic and hugging back. Tim and Dick were pretending they weren't crying.

The twins themselves, though they were obviously overjoyed to be home, weren't alright. They were jumpy and skittish, and while Nick was smiling broadly, Sarah had yet to do so. Bruce suspected it was because Nick had been unconscious the entire time, until he was back in the safety of his family's presence. Sarah had a fuller idea of what had awaited them if their parents hadn't rescued them, had woken up to find herself surrounded by strangers who, for all she knew, might have been meaning to kill her. Still, at the moment, he could not find it in himself to worry about that. They were home. Bruce and Diana just basked in having their children with them, grinning until their cheeks hurt. Diana had reached for his hand at some point, and Bruce had been more than happy to let her. It was unmistakably different now between the two of them. Somewhere in between the twins being disappearing and getting them back, it had crystallised. He loved her and now — for the first time in years — he was sure she loved him too. It was just a matter of waiting until they were alone.

When the sound of the car engines came up the driveway, though, all of the adults in the kitchen noticed Sarah and Nick flinch. No one commented on it, though Tim hugged Sarah a little more tightly in reassurance, with Bruce squeezing Nicholas's fingers. Diana was the one who moved toward the door, smiling gently at both her children.

"I'll be right back," she promised.

They both nodded nervously, and Diana left the kitchen. They heard her footsteps cross to the door, and then she opened it. Bruce recognised the male voice that spoke. Jim Gordon. Why was he here? Unless the police had come up with something that he and the League had missed? It seemed very unlikely. Curiosity driving him, Bruce let go of Nicholas and moved toward the kitchen door.

"Daddy–"

The small, scared word seemed torn from Sarah, and immediately, Bruce's heart rebelled against the idea of leaving both his children. No matter that Tim, Dick and Alfred were in the room too — Sarah and Nick were _his _children, his and Diana's.

He crossed to her, kneeling. "Sarah, I'm not going anywhere, I promise. It's Commissioner Gordon, okay? And you trust him, right?"

She nodded uncertainly. "He was nice to me and Nicky," she admitted.

"So you know he's not one of the bad guys."

She nodded again, this time more confidently. "Okay."

Bruce kissed her forehead, did the same for Nick, and then left the kitchen.

"Please, Commissioner. We just got them home." The plea in Diana's voice wasn't hard to pick up on.

"I realise that, Miss Prince, but while the experience is still fresh–"

"Still fresh?" Bruce repeated, letting his tone slip dangerously close to the Bat, "Jim, they're going to be having nightmares about this for weeks." I'm_ going to be having nightmares about this for weeks._

"Exactly why we need to get this over with now," Jim said gently. "I'm sorry, but if they do begin to have nightmares, then it could cloud their actual memories of it. We need to know, Bruce. It's the only way we can prosecute the people the Justice League arrested."

The detective in Bruce knew he was right, and it was battling hard against the father. Finally, they settled on a compromise. "Tomorrow," he said finally, tone brooking no argument. "We'll bring them to the station tomorrow."

His hand took Diana's, and he looked at her as the muscle in her jaw twitched, but she nodded, not saying anything. Jim nodded understandingly. "Alright. I'm available any time tomorrow."

"There's one more thing," Bruce said. "Could you make it a no-fly zone for a mile around the manor? The kids really don't need to hear helicopters all the time."

Gordon nodded. "I'll make it for five miles in all directions. Right, I'll leave you in peace. I'll be conducting the interview myself."

They both nodded, but shut the front door on Gordon with a relieved air from both of them. "Hera, when does it _end_?" Diana demanded in a whisper.

He pulled her into his arms. "Tomorrow," he promised. "After that, all this is an unpleasant memory."

Diana shook her head. "Not all of it." She leaned back and touched his face. "Without each other, I don't think either of us would have made it."

He turned his head; kissed her palm. "Move your things into the Manor," he asked. "The kids are going to want you here. We all will."

Her blue eyes widened. "So you're asking me to move in with you?"

It wasn't until he _didn't _feel any surprise at the idea that he realised that, yes, that was what he'd been asking. He nodded. "Yes. We've waited long enough already, Diana. I love you."

Diana kissed him softly, so lovingly that it would be impossible to mask the fact her feelings matched his own. When she drew back, she put her forehead against his. "Then we have one more thing to do tomorrow."

* * *

"Can I help, Mommy?" Nick asked his mother as he moved over to a dozen of the heavier boxes.

There had been no time wasted once Diana had said yes to Bruce. That afternoon they'd gone down with some boxes to pack up the essential stuff that were still in the gatehouse. All of them except Alfred and Sarah were helping; he was somewhat hampered by the fact that Sarah wouldn't let go of his hand for apparent fear he might have a _very _delayed concussion. Or danger of death. Her parents had just about managed to persuade her that phoning for Doctor Thomkins wasn't necessary, but that seemed to be as far as she was willing to compromise. Nick, though, was pitching in with gusto.

Diana smiled and gestured toward the box marked 'cookbooks'. "Could you take that up to the kitchen for me, little sun?"

"Sure."

Rather than picking up just one of the boxes, though, Nick picked up the whole stack — with no strain, but no finesse either. They wobbled dangerously on his way up to the Manor, Nick weaving with them. When he had to dart severely sideways to keep from them falling, Sarah's laugh rang out from the kitchen doorway. "Nicky, you're gonna drop them!"

He staggered into the kitchen and put the books down just in time, with his sister still giggling. Impulsively, he moved over to her and hugged her tightly. Sarah closed her eyes and did the same, tears in her eyes. "It'll always be you and me, Nicky, right?"

He nodded. "Right."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

They hugged for a while longer, and when they let go of each other, Sarah didn't immediately go for Alfred's hand again. She went over and picked up the top book on the stack. "_The Art of French Cooking_," she read. "Where does this one go, Alfred?"

"I think there might be some space on the shelf on the far side, dear," he smiled.

"Okay."

With Alfred and Sarah dealing with the cookbooks, Nick went back down to Mommy's house to see what else he could help with. For some reason, though, Mommy didn't seem to want him to carry her clothes up.

"But if I fly it'll take much less time," he told her.

She smiled, ruffled his hair. "Yes, little sun, but you've not been flying for very long yet. You'll need me to teach you more control before you're really good."

Nick grinned, immediately excited. "You're going to _teach _me? Cool!"

Daddy didn't seem so pleased by that prospect, and frowned. "Princess, I don't think _now _is such a good idea. He's very young."

"Young and unbelievably strong, Bruce," Mommy pointed out. "It matters if he can't control it."

"Hmmm."

Mommy squeezed Daddy's hand, smiling comfortingly at him. It made Nick feel warm and safe whenever she smiled at him like that, and it looked like it was the same with Daddy. The little frown between his eyebrows went away quickly, and his face brightened. He even smiled. Nick hid his grin behind his hand. They had to get married soon, they just had to. Then it would be happily ever after for all of them. After all, that was how it was supposed to work for heroes.

They worked most of the day, moving things out of the gatehouse and up into the Manor. It took less time than it would have done ordinarily, since Diana and Nick could carry the loads of ten people each, and the final item to be flown up was the car, which Diana balanced on one hand, and placed gently in the garage.

They all had meatballs for dinner, coming out of one huge pot that Alfred put in the middle of the kitchen table and everyone helped themselves. It was definitely the least formal meal ever served in the manor, but also the best that anyone could remember. It was noisy, full of laughter and spaghetti sauce down everyone's clothes.

The simple meal was a little at odds with the vintage champagne that Bruce got from the wine cellar (naturally, and much to their mutual disappointment, Sarah and Nick had not been allowed any), but there was plenty of both. No one really knew who fell asleep first, but at about ten, Tim came back from the bathroom to find Sarah fast asleep on Diana's lap, Nick slumbering peacefully on Bruce's, both parents asleep too. That wasn't surprising — what was surprising was the fact that Dick was sprawled out on the couch, snoring his head off, and (Tim had to pinch himself to make sure _he _was awake at this) _Alfred_ asleep in his chair. He may as well have been awake for all the softness there was in his posture though; he sat completely rigidly. Smiling broadly, Tim picked up the now-empty spaghetti pot — not quietly, but no one stirred — and took it over to the sink, beginning the dishes.

Things were going to be okay, he thought as he started to rinse the pot. Not immediately and not for a while, but they would.

* * *

"I'm not sure about this," Nick said uncomfortably. "We're not supposed to lie, are we?"

"No, son," Bruce said, "but sometimes you can't always tell the truth. It could be dangerous if you do, especially now."

"Yeah, but…"

"Don't think about it like lying, Nicky," Sarah said, "just think of it as a different want to tell the truth."

Diana nodded approvingly – it was how she'd kept up her double-life since the twins were born. She _was _Wonder Woman, but she was Diana. And _Diana_ Prince had given birth to her son and daughter. Sarah was thinking along the same lines, but it appeared that Nicholas still didn't really understand.

"What d'you mean?" he asked.

"Well, don't think of _Mommy _and _Daddy_ rescuing us, _Batman _and _Wonder Woman _did. Right?"

"But they _are _Mommy and Daddy," Nick insisted.

"Did Batman ever give you a piggyback ride?" Sarah asked.

"Well no…"

"And did Wonder Woman ever look after you when you were sick?"

"No." He sighed, then nodded. "Okay, I think I get it. Tell the truth, but just answer the question and nothing else, right?"

His sister and parents nodded as the car drew up outside GCPD HQ. Nine a.m. Right on time. Remembering what had happened the last time he'd let go of his sister's hand, Nick held onto Sarah tightly as they moved across the seven feet of sidewalk that separated the car and the building. Their parents followed, also hand-in-hand. Commissioner Gordon was waiting for them at the front desk, and he smiled in a kind, patient way at them as they approached, then shook Nick's hand in the same way he had Dad's. Nick decided he definitely liked him.

"We'll talk in my office, rather than an interview room, okay, kids?"

Nick was a little disappointed at not getting to see a real interrogation room, but Sarah nodded, fervently glad she didn't have to face any more small rooms. Thankfully the commissioner's office had been windows that looked out over the Gotham skyline. They did get to walk through the bullpen, though, where lots of the detectives were. Many of them were on the phone on business, but nearly everyone either smiled or waved in their direction. When the Commissioner finally came to a halt in front of his office door, he turned to them and said, "Now kids, I'm going to ask your parents to wait outside while we talk, okay? You'll still be able to see them through the door, but I need to know exactly what you remember."

They both nodded, and then walked into the office, seating themselves in chairs in front of his desk. Nick glanced behind them and got a reassuring smile from Mommy.

"Hey," Sarah said brightly, picking up a photograph, "Auntie Babs!"

Jim peered down at her. "You know my daughter?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "She visits us sometimes, and even baby-sits if Alfred can't." She then leaned forward, adding in a more quiet, conspiratorial tone, "She used to date Uncle Dick you know."

Gordon did the same, winking. "I know!"

"Still does," Nick put in.

"She doesn't._" _

"Does too."

"Does_ not_!"

Gordon cleared his throat, and they both fell into silence. He had the same kind of quiet authority Daddy did, instinctively they knew they had to listen to him. "Sorry."

"It's okay, kids, but this is important."

"We know."

"Alright then. So, first question – what can you remember about the day you were kidnapped?"

Slowly, haltingly, they told him everything they could: that it had been lunchtime, they'd heard a helicopter first, and then a car. Then the men in black. The white smoke that trickled everywhere. How Alfred had ushered them both into the library –

"The library?" the commissioner asked, looking up from the notes he was taking. "Why the library?"

Knowing how bad Nicky was at outright lying, Sarah answered him without missing a beat. "Because there's a passageway that leads to an old bomb shelter in there. We could have hid."

He nodded, accepting that. "I see. And then what?"

"Then they… they burst in and hit Alfred and–" Sarah cut off, feeling tears close her throat. Of everything in the whole terrifying experience, it was the worst part for her – the idea that something terrible might have happened to Alfred.

Putting an arm around her shoulders, Nick carried on – missing out the part where he'd jumped out of the window, and managing to make it seem as though he'd been taken out by the drugs too. Their two stories differed after that; Sarah gave as accurate descriptions as she could of the scientists in the room when she woke, and then described how Wonder Woman and Green Arrow had been the ones to find her. Wonder Woman carried her through the complex and then they'd met Batman carrying Nicky to safety with Superman next to him. She remembered seeing Auntie Shayera there as well. Then when Commissioner Gordon had gotten there, the twins had gone with him to be reunited with Mommy and Daddy at the airport.

Nick's story was much the same, except he'd not woken until he'd been rescued and Wonder Woman was holding him.

Sarah suddenly realised with a sickening jolt that she'd said Wonder Woman had rescued her, which was true – but why would the two Justice Leaguers swap children? When the police had arrived, Daddy had been holding her. What if he asked why, what if–

"Alright, I think that's all, kids," Gordon said, suddenly making her jump. "Thanks for that, I've got all I need."

"Are you gonna catch the bad people?" Nick asked.

"We'll certainly try," Gordon assured him. "We're cooperating with the Justice League on this one as well, and if anyone can find anything, it's Batman."

He opened the office door, and spoke to Mommy and Daddy. "You can take them home now. They answered all my questions really well."

"So were you able to learn anything new?" Dad asked sharply.

"Well, Sarah gave me some good descriptions of two of the men at the complex – it's going to be difficult of course to trace them, but at least it's a start. We have some extraneous fingerprints and DNA samples from the facility as well that are already under analysis in our lab."

"Good. Thanks, Jim."

They all said their goodbyes – the commissioner shaking Nick's hand again – and left. "So can we go home now?" Sarah asked.

"Not yet, little star," Mommy told her. "We have something else to do later on while we're in the city."

"What?"

"It's a surprise," Daddy smiled. "A good surprise. But first we need to do some shopping."

"_Shopping_?" Nick deplored. "_All _of us? But Daaaaad…shopping's for _girls_."

Mom and Dad both chuckled, but shook their heads. "Not today, little sun. Today's for something special. Now you go with Dad and I'll go with Sarah, and we'll meet up at City Hall in two hours, okay?"

"City Hall?" Sarah asked quizzically. "Why are we going to City–" Suddenly she cut off, looking with huge eyes at her mother and father, face shining in excitement. "Are you and Daddy–? Are you going to–? _Finally_?"

Mommy bent to kiss her nose, smiling broadly. "Maybe. You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?"

Sarah let out an excited squeal and threw herself at Diana, hugging for all she was worth. "Oh my God, oh my God, ohmyGod, omigodomigodomigodomigod-" She let go, grabbing Mommy's hand and pulling her off down the street. "Come _on_, Mommy! We have to go shopping!"

Nick watched them go in utter confusion, before finally turning to look up at his grinning-father. "I do _not _understand girls. Why is she getting so excited?"

"Keep a secret?"

Nick nodded.

"We're going to City Hall because there's something Mom and I have to do. Something we have to make official."

Nick frowned, thinking about it. Slowly, though, his eyes widened. "Oh. My. God. You're getting _married_?"

* * *

"I now pronounce you husband and wife." The justice smiled at them. "You may kiss the bride."

Diana wore no veil, merely a few lilies arranged like a circlet. Still, her blue eyes fairly glowed as she smiled brilliantly at him. Bruce grinned back as he leaned down, their lips met in a sweet, tender kiss.

It was either a moment or an eternity later, but eventually the comments from the peanut gallery began to sink past the pleasant fog Bruce's brain was engulfed in.

"About time." Tim.

"Good things come to those who wait." Barbara.

"Still, if you'd told me a few years ago that this was going to happen, I'd have told you to go check yourself in at Arkham." Dick.

Bruce inwardly rolled his eyes as he and Diana finally came up for air and turned to face the small group of people gathered for the small wedding. He was fairly sure he had not seen Alfred looking so happy and peaceful since Bruce and Diana had first brought the newborn twins to the Manor. Bruce also thought he might have seen a hint of a tear in the older man's eye.

The twins stood in front of Alfred, somehow managing to look both delighted and satisfied. Bruce's lips twitched. He had a feeling that nothing would ever convince the two otherwise that they hadn't been instrumental in bringing the day about.

Sarah turned to look at Dick, a quizzical look on her face. "What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious that they'd get married?" Nick asked. He pointed toward them. "They're Mommy and Daddy."

Bruce smirked. In his son and daughter's minds, that explained everything.

Dick shook his head. "If you could remember back then, you wouldn't be so sure, kiddo. Things were a hell of a lot more complicated then."

Bruce watched his children glance at each other, clearly perplexed.

"Adults are weird," Nick finally pronounced. "Why do we have to grow up again?"

Sarah shrugged, reaching up to touch her own circlet of lilies. "I'm already smarter than everyone in this place," she stated. "The real question here is why do _I_ need to grow up?"

* * *

**A/N: Review please!**


	15. Aphrodite's Gift

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Sorry I didn't get around to replying to them all, I will do this time I promise :) This is the penultimate chapter in Oklahoma Part II, enjoy it!**

**Chapter Fifteen—Aphrodite's Gift**

They'd somehow ended up in Pizza Hut for the wedding breakfast (Dick suspected it had somehow been the kids' choice, but he couldn't prove anything)—and the only person who looked a little ill-at-ease was Alfred, whom Dick thought probably wanted to clean everything.

It brought a smile to Dick's face, and it beat looking at Bruce and Diana making eyes at each other, which was frankly nauseating. Thankfully, Nick interrupted his train of nasty-thought before he could get to the harrowing-destination that he'd most likely need brain-bleach for.

"Oh, by the way, Uncle Dick?"

"Yeah, kiddo?"

Sarah slurped on her soda before answering. "Me and Nicky have decided to swap godparents, so you're now my godfather. Okay?"

He grinned bemusedly. "Uh, sure, but…why the sudden change?"

Nick looked around, but the restaurant was deserted aside from them and a teenage waiter picking his nose. "Well, since I have powers and Sarah doesn't, it makes sense that I have the meta-people as godparents."

"I guess we'll have to tell Uncle Clark when we see him as well…" Sarah mused. "I hope he doesn't think it's because I don't like him…"

Dick laughed and ruffled her blonde hair, which earned him a glower eerily reminiscent of the batglare. "Don't worry, Sarah, he won't. And I'm more than happy to be your godfather. Though I'm pretty sure whatever I could teach you, your dad already has lined up."

"Well what if I want to learn something Daddy won't teach me? Like…"

"Like?"

She looked up hopefully. "Would you teach me how to ride a motorcycle when I get old enough? A-and teach me how they work? It's just so _cool_!"

"Deal," he grinned, shaking her little hand.

Unfortunately he happened to have chosen a moment when Bruce wasn't completely drowning in his wife's eyes, and so heard the agreement. And although Dick had been dealing with Bruce since he was ten years old, he could probably count the number of times he'd had glares like that on one hand. And each one had made his eyes water.

_Alright, no teaching the little princess to ride the bike, gotcha…_

It wasn't long after that—thankfully—that their pizza arrived, coming toward them on a massive round tray, steam wafting invitingly from it. It got about six inches from the tabletop, and then, inexplicably, it stopped.

As did the waiter.

And the curls of steam dancing upward.

And the second hands of the clock on the wall.

And the traffic outside.

Puzzled and worried frowns gathered on everyone's faces, then Diana put a hand to her ear. Dick had to agree with her; whatever was going on, they had to get the kids to safety before anything. "Wonder Woman to Watchtower. Watchtower, come in!"

"They cannot hear you, Diana," a female voice said.

There was a slow burn of golden light, bringing with it probably the most beautiful woman Dick had ever seen. And that was including Diana. She had long blonde hair which flowed around her perfect face, and her flawless body was swathed only in strips of pale-

A high-heel was driven hard into the top of his foot. "Ow!"

"You're _staring_," his girlfriend hissed angrily.

"Oh. Sorry."

In Dick's defence, he hadn't been the only one staring: Tim couldn't take his bulging eyes off of the strange woman, and even Nick seemed to be transfixed. Bruce was glaring. Diana looked shocked and awed.

"Lady Aphrodite!"

Ah. Dick's mind automatically ran through what he knew about her, which wasn't a lot. Greek parthenon, and one of Diana's patron goddesses, which explained her referring to the princess by name. Goddess of love and desire, which explained why she was so beautiful. Indirectly responsible for the War of Troy, so potentially not to be trusted. He moved his hand toward the batarang he kept in his inside jacket pocket. Just in case.

She held up a hand when Diana made to rise. "Do not worry, Diana. I came only to wish you joy on your wedding day—and to give you my gift."

Diana smiled and squeezed her husband's fingers. "Believe me, your gift is already very much appreciated."

Aphrodite grinned at the display of affection. "Much as I would love to claim a love like this was my doing, it has not been. You found one another yourselves. It was not my efforts which resulted in your union. Though they did result in two beautiful children."

Dick glanced at Bruce; he remembered him having suspicions that Diana's gods had been involved in the twins' technically-impossible conception. There was the faintest glint of triumph in his face, but he said nothing.

"No, my gift is this: give me your hands, both of you."

Diana did so immediately, Bruce more slowly. Aphrodite closed her eyes, her arms glowing white for a moment. The light flowed down to Bruce and Diana's hands, and then appeared as two points of light above their hearts. "There. I have mated your souls."

"Then they weren't-" Diana shook her head. "Forgive me, but I assumed we were already soul-mates."

"No, but you will be from now on. It means that you will fear each other's happiness, fear, pain, excitement, joy. Time will pass the same for you."

"Wait a minute," Bruce interrupted, "are you saying that as I age, Diana will as well?"

"In a way. Not physically, but it will enable her to feel some of the aches and pains that come with your mortal age."

Diana blinked, and unexpectedly, Dick saw tears in her eyes. Was the idea that bad? She looked down for a moment, and when she spoke again, her voice was throaty with emotion. "Thank you, my lady. Thank you so much. I could wish for nothing more."

Bruce, unsurprisingly, did not feel the same way. "Princess, we need to-"

"There's nothing to talk about," she interrupted gently, kissing him softly. "It's what I want, I promise you."

"Um, Aphrodite?" Sarah's small voice spoke up.

The goddess turned to her. "Yes?"

"Can you not do that to me when I get married please? Sounds kinda creepy."

Aphrodite smiled softly, reaching out to touch the girl's cheek. "Fear not, little one," she said. "Your soul is already mated…and destined."

Before any of them could react to that, there was a golden fading light, and she was gone. They all jumped when the waiter reactivated and placed the pizza on the table. "Can I get you folks anything else?"

* * *

They arrived back at the manor a few hours' later to find a Javelin on the back lawn. As soon as they pulled up, the landing ramp came down, and two shrieking children came careering down it toward the twins. Rex and Kyra—now dancing round in a circle talking loudly and hugging Sarah and Nick lots (with cooties apparently forgotten for the time being)—were followed more sedately by their parents.

"Sorry for the invasion," Shayera shrugged. "But the kids have been crawling up the walls wanting to see your two."

"Plus you didn't give us a lot of time to get you a wedding present."

"How do-?"

"J'onn."

Bruce glared half-heartedly at his wife, who only grinned back, uncaring. "What? I was happy."

"Anyway—the present is we'll take the kids off your hands for a few hours. Deal with the ensuing sugar-rush too. That way you two can go have a really short honeymoon."

"Are you sure?" Diana asked. Those sugar-rushes could get frankly apocalyptic.

"We're sure. Plus we've always got these three to help, right?" Shayera asked, glancing at Dick, Tim and Barbara.

"Y'know, I suddenly remembered Dad's expecting me for dinner," Babs smiled nervously.

"Yeah, and I have _loads _of homework," Tim added, nodding vigourously. "_Reams_ of it, in fact."

Dick checked his watch with an expression of over-exaggerated surprise. "My shift starts in like a half-hour—can I use the Javelin to get back to Bludhaven, in fact?"

"No," Bruce said flatly.

"Wow, then I really have to get going."

It was amazing how three people without super-speed—without powers at all, in fact—could disappear so quickly. Bruce edged closer to his wife; the confident expressions on John and Shayera's faces were wavering quickly, and he really wanted be out of here before they changed their minds. The kids had already raided the cookie cupboards. They had roughly eight minutes before the sugar kicked in and all four of them were locomotives.

Diana, however, was looking at Alfred, who in turn seemed to be glaring at the shuttle on his perfectly-groomed grass. The left rear wheel was right on his rhubarb patch, too, much to the old man's consternation. Considering the event that he'd waited twenty years for had occurred that afternoon, he really wasn't doing well out of today, Diana thought with a smile.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll replant them together, Alfred."

"Of course, Mrs Wayne. They were half-eaten by slugs anyway."

Grinning broadly at her new title, Diana pointed out the ripening strawberries. "Those are nearly ready anyway, so at least we'll have something."

"Alas, they're nothing without Cornish clotted cream."

"Then we'll just have to import some," she smiled.

"Later," Bruce interjected, grabbing Diana's hand and all-but-dragging her onto the Javelin.

"Thank you!" she called over her shoulder to their friends.

A few seconds later, the landing ramp was retracted, and the huge craft lifted into the air. John and Shayera were left on the lawn wondering two things: one, where the hell Alfred had disappeared to in the last ten seconds, and two, what the hell they'd just let themselves in for.

From the house, there was the _thunk_ of a football being kicked. It was followed almost immediately by the tinkling of broken glass. Then:

"Aw, _Rex_!"

* * *

"Wow, do we owe John and Shayera…"

Diana chuckled and kissed Bruce's bare shoulder. "We do. Hera, we do for about twenty years…" She rolled over onto her back and ran a hand which still shook from pleasure through her hair. "How do you _do _that…?"

He drew her closer in answer, kissed her. Diana returned it with complete and open passion—which proved that if all the rest of his body was exhausted, there was at least _one _muscle still functioned. Diana laughed. "You'll have to give a girl a little rest, Mr Wayne."

"Trust me, that's completely independent of me. Mrs Wayne," he added with a grin.

They smiled at one another, partly feeling like bashful teenagers, partly simply as though they had got to where they were always meant to be. "What time is it?"

"Almost eight."

"So two hours," she mused. He normally began his patrol around Gotham around ten.

"Two hours to get some sleep. You've exhausted me."

"Oh dear. Looks like that old age will be coming faster than expected," she joked.

"Being married to you? How could I expect anything less?"

"Not _just _me," she reminded him, poking him lightly in the side. "I imagine the children will have something to say about it." She looked down for a minute, a question in her azure eyes when she met his gaze again. "Bruce, do you want more children?"

"I don't know," he considered. "The twins are a handful as they are. Do you?"

"Yes. I want to do things…properly this time. I love Sarah and Nicholas, they're so wonderful, but…we weren't fair on them. My pregnancy we spent apart, and the first six years of their lives they didn't have a whole home—and it took such a horrific ordeal for them to get it. We should give them a younger brother or sister. One who's never known anything but happiness."

She spoke so honestly, with such open yearning in her voice and face, that there was no way in the world Bruce could ever deny her. He nodded. "Alright. We'll try for another child."

She kissed him. "Thank you."

Presently Diana gave a contented sigh and curled into his side, shutting her eyes. He wanted to follow, but somehow found himself watching her sleep. She looked completely worry-free, innocent in the same way the children were when they slept.

He sighed, put a palm gently on her flat stomach. It was quite possible they'd already conceived another child—the twins had only taken one night, after all. But was it a good idea? It was what Diana wanted, and when the baby was born, whether it was in nine months or three years, he'd love it, he knew. But they were only just married, and the kids were…well, fine. But it would be imbecilic to assume they'd stay that way. Especially Sarah. He wouldn't be surprised if she suffered from deep-seated anxiety issues for years to come, hated separation from her loved ones for the rest of her life. She probably wouldn't be going to Harvard anymore. Too far from Gotham.

The hand that wasn't curled around Diana clenched into a fist. Those bastards. How dare they take the unspoiled lives of his family and blot on their bright horizons! Today, tonight, was the only respite those sons of bitches would get from this moment on. He'd hunt them every second of their miserable lives until all of them were in jail. _Very _far from where they could touch anyone's children ever again. At least Gotham was quiet at the moment; it would give him a chance to make some real headway into the case. Gordon had depositions and statements; Dick had forensic evidence he'd left in the Cave. Perhaps J'onn could scan Sarah's mind and see if there was anything she herself couldn't remember. Almost instantly, he threw that thought out: Sarah had been through more than enough.

He managed to get some sleep, though not enough considering he'd spent most of the afternoon and all of the evening engaged in vigorous activity of some kind or another. Mostly naked. All naked. Considering Diana had been naked right along with him, Bruce really didn't mind. A day well-spent.

At ten p.m., the alarm went off, awakening them both instantly. They were in the Watchtower, in Batman's quarters. Bruce changed quickly while Diana gathered her clothes up from…well, all over the room.

When they were both ready, she kissed him lingeringly. "I'll see you later."

"At home?"

She nodded. "If the kids haven't levelled it with all the sugar."

"I shouldn't be too late tonight. It's pretty quiet. Joker's still inside."

"Alright. I love you."

"I love you too."

Patrol was pretty quiet for approximately fifty-five minutes. In that time, he prevented three muggings, an armed robbery and a drug deal. Then the batsignal got switched on. Commissioner Gordon was looking even more world-weary than normal when he arrived silently on the roof, on the opposite side from which Jim was looking.

"What is it?"

"Escape from Arkham."

"Joker?"

"Yeah. Last reports had him heading east into the financial district with an RPG, a gas tanker and several M16s."

"Possible target is the Gilbert building then." Though not a bank per se, the Gilbert Corporation was a safety deposit bank, which happened to contain most of the diamonds in Gotham, as well as gold bars, treasure and whatever else was valuable to the richest citizens.

Gordon nodded thoughtfully. There were other potential targets as well, but the Gilbert building seemed the most probable location. Gordon looked down to take a sip of his coffee, and Batman made sure he was gone by the time he looked up again. The financial district was at the other end of the city, so the fastest way to get there was the Batmobile. Batman raced through the city, arriving just as the Joker and his crew were going in. As soon as the sound of the engines reached them, a grenade was fired in his direction. The motion-seeking laser cannons on the front of the car swatted it from the air more than twenty metres from the car, following it with another burst that then destroyed the RPG itself.

That gone, the thugs opened fire on the car with their machine-guns, which resulted in nothing more than some harmless sparks against the heavily-armoured Batmobile. Batman, meanwhile, was no longer in the car. The criminals had no idea of that until a huge Bat-shaped shadow began landing on them, one by one. Head's were smashed against walls, shoulders dislocated and wrists broken until there was only one man left standing, still firing at an empty car. He quickly ran out of bullets, and didn't take long to realise that the only sound was his own breathing.

He turned with a gasp. "Oh _shi_-"

He didn't get to the end of his sentence.

Batman made his way into the building, activating the cowl's night-vision to ensure he didn't step over any trip-wires or activate any boobytraps. There were six on the way from reception to the vault, and a terrified security guard who raised a wavering hand to point him in the direction the Joker had gone.

There were a few vault doors open, but not many. Batman's arrival had meant that the Joker couldn't get everything he'd been after. There was no sign of the clown, but the back door fire exit was open, and there was familiar—very unwelcome—laughter echoing back at him.

Batman gave chase into the backstreets and alleyways. There was no way Joker could outrun him, but he could have allies or hideaways somewhere near.

The sound of gunshots made him increase his pace. The shots weren't being fired at him, though, they-

He hurtled around a corner to find a dead-ended alley. At the end of it were two figures. One was the Joker—a surprisingly small, crumpled figure at the feet of the second.

The woman had her back to Bruce, and was stood about four feet from the Joker. She wore a long black cloak, a hood that cast her face into deep shadow. There seemed no markings on her clothing. She was firing a gun directly into the Joker's chest. Six shots in the chamber, and all six of them went into the clown prince's heart.

Bruce knew he should be stopping it, but he found himself unable to move. It was too late anyway. The gun was empty. The woman threw it to the ground. Then she turned around. Her breathing was the only sound in the silent alley, and it was harsh, erratic.

He took in the hood again, the cloak. She wasn't wearing gloves, but- "Andrea?"

She stiffened at the sight of him, then almost immediately slumped. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

Then, quite literally, she vanished.

* * *

**A/N: Review please!**


	16. Future

**A/N: And so we come to the end of this story. Thanks so much to everyone for your reviews and comments, and I really hope you liked the story. Chapter 1 of Part III should be up within a couple of days. For now, numbers 43 and 49 of _Sushi Ocean _both feature the twins if you haven't read them already! ;) And thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to the wonderful Angel Queen.**

**Chapter Sixteen—Future**

Bruce's hands were still shaking when he pushed open the clock and entered the library. He hadn't taken the suit off, he hadn't switched the Batmobile's engine off, updated his logs on the computer. He'd just come home, knowing he needed to see Diana. Diana would make everything make sense again. Because right now it didn't.

She was asleep when he came in, the lamp on dimly in the corner. He shut the door behind him, sat on the edge of the bed. She stirred, giving him a warm smile.

"How was patrol?" she asked sleepily. When he reached over and turned the lamp up brighter, she sat up, screwing up her eyes. "What, Bruce, what-" she cut off, noticing he was still wearing the batsuit, and that his expression was shocked. "What is it, what's happened?" she asked immediately. "What's wrong?"

Wrong? Well... "Nothing's...wrong..." he said slowly. That was true—in fact there was a good argument for saying that something _good _had happened. But it had still rocked him.

"Then what?" she asked with a concerned frown, running her fingers soothingly through his hair.

"The Joker was killed tonight," he said flatly. "Murdered right in front of me."

"What? By who?" she demanded.

He shrugged. "I don't know- A woman, but she disappeared before I could..."

"Disappeared?" Diana questioned. "You mean she ran?"

"No," he said, "I mean she _evaporated_." His frown deepened, remembering the woman's apology. "Said she was _sorry_, then..."

Looking wide awake now, she removed his gauntlets and took his hands. "Stop, Bruce. Collect your thoughts and explain this to me more clearly."

He nodded, and listed the events of that night to her; what had happened up to the point of him finding the Joker and the woman in the alley. "It was a revolver she used; six shots, and she fired all of them at point blank range. She couldn't miss."

"And you have no idea who she was? Or why she apologised?"

"There's only one possibility I could think of. A long time ago—before Batman—I was engaged. In love. So in love that I was going to give up the whole idea of avenging my parents. But then she disappeared. Her father had mob connections, and for fear of his life they fled to Europe. I didn't see Andrea again for ten years. Then several crimelords began to be murdered by a masked killer. The press dubbed it the Phantasm."

"And it was Andrea?" Diana guessed.

Bruce nodded. "After a failed attempt to kill the Joker, she fled Gotham. I haven't seen or heard from her since."

"Until tonight."

"I'm still not sure it _was _her," he answered. "She _was _wearing a hood similar to the one Andrea did as the Phantasm. Dark clothes, and I couldn't see her face. No gloves."

"So there were fingerprints?"

"None that the police had on file. I have Andrea's fingerprints in the database in the Cave."

"Have you checked them?"

He shook his head.

Diana got out of bed, and took his hand. In silence she led him through the manor; past the children's bedroom. The door was open, and he glanced in. The two of them were sleeping peacefully, if in the same bed. Nick had Sarah's hand held tightly between his, and his face had a little frown on it. He looked very determined.

Library, then staircase, the Cave, finally computer.

She indicated for him to sit in the chair, and then put her hands on his shoulders as he did so. He took the tiny fingerprint analyzer out of his belt, connected it to the computer.

"Cross-reference with existing database."

"Cross-referencing now."

The screen flickered with hundreds of fingerprints, drawing lines of comparison with lightning speed between each. It took roughly three minutes for the result to flash up, and for the automated voice to announce it.

"No result found. Repeat: no result found."

"So it wasn't the Phantasm," Diana said. "A new vigilante maybe? It could be a good idea to keep an eye on the rest of the major criminals."

"Already done. Gordon's tripled the guard for Poison Ivy, Freeze, the Riddler and Clayface in Arkham. Two-Face fled to Mexico six months ago; he's lying low in Cancun, in a villa I've bugged. Harley Quinn's location is unknown. But there's no way she would kill the Joker."

"Why not?"

"She loves him," Batman answered simply. "Loved."

He felt Diana shiver. "And you say this woman vanished? As in she transported away?"

"No. No light or heat discharge to indicate a transporter. This seemed like magic."

"Do you want to involve Zatanna? Take her to the murder scene and see if she can sense anything?"

There was a pause. "Maybe in the morning."

When he turned, Diana's expression showed she knew exactly what he meant, and agreed with him completely. Neither of them cared. The situation would be monitored, and if it happened again, then yes, action would be taken. But if not… If not, Gotham had just had its biggest cancer removed. If not, they had two scarred children to heal. If not, the Joker would never be more than a nightmarish memory.

* * *

"Are you alright, Daddy?" Sarah asked over the breakfast table. "You look tired."

"I'm fine, sweetheart."

She studied his face for a second longer, then decided it was true. He did look fine. And him and Mommy seemed just as totally and completely, one-hundred-percent in love as they had yesterday.

"Did you have nightmares last night, little star?" Mommy asked.

Sarah nodded, feeling ashamed. She knew she was a little kid, but that didn't mean she liked _feeling _like one—and when she woke up so scared she couldn't see anything, that made her feel _really_ childish. "Nicky had to let me sleep with him."

"I didn't mind," her brother said. "That's what brothers are for, right? To protect their little sisters."

"I'm _older _than you!"

"By two minutes!"

"Still older!"

"Settle down, you two," Daddy quelled. "There's something-"

Too late, though—Sarah had just caught a glimpse of the front page of the _Gotham Gazette_. "Oh. My. God."

Her mother went to grab it, but Nicky got there first, reading the headline and the first few lines of the article out loud, slightly haltingly over the bigger words. "Joker dead. Police confirm that last night, the clown prince of Gotham was found dead in an alleyway a little after midnight. Al- Although his con-conflicts with Batman were well doc- doc-"

"Documented," Sarah supplied.

"-documented, Com- Commissioner? Commissioner Gordon insisted the Dark Knight is not a sus- suspect."

Both of them stared up at their father in silence. He looked right back. Sarah absolutely believed Commissioner Gordon. But she still had a question. "Why didn't you kill him, Daddy? There must've been times you wanted to."

His eyes narrowed, and she wanted to squirm in her seat, like just by asking she'd done something really wrong. "Sarah, you need to understand this. You both do. There's no _possible_ excuse or reason for killing someone. The things your mother and I do mean that we have to be above that, ignore what we might want in favour of what the greater good is. Killing—whether it's an accident or murder—is completely unacceptable. Do you understand?"

They both nodded silently.

"Good. Never forget it."

"No, Daddy."

* * *

Two weeks later, Bruce was struggling to control his rage as he stared at the depositions and reports. Besides finding Sarah and Nick, there had been practically nothing in the laboratory to give away who had been behind the kidnapping. The men arrested at the lab had merely been doctors, who insisted that they had been hired just to perform a battery of tests on the twins. However, they could not identify their employer. Even when J'onn thoroughly picked their brains, they found nothing.

The men had been pawns. The king had escaped the League's attempt at checkmate. Which meant that he—or she—could try again. If not with Sarah and Nick, then one of the other League children, such as the Kent twins, or Ollie and Dinah's son, Michael. Until they knew more, they had to assume that all of the children were targets.

Bruce knew he should go back to the laboratory, do some searching himself. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that the police and other League investigators had missed something. He-

"Daddy?"

He turned immediately in his chair, and found Sarah standing in front of him, clad in her pyjamas and hugging a stuffed animal tightly to her chest.

"Sweetheart, what are you doing up?" he asked. He gestured her forward and she immediately moved to climb into his lap.

"Couldn't sleep," she mumbled, resting her head against his chest.

Bruce stroked her hair lightly. He'd hoped they were past this stage. Nick had been doing much better, hadn't had nightmares for nearly a week now, and Sarah too had also seemed to have improved. It seemed otherwise, though.

"The League can't find the bad person, can they?" she asked quietly.

He paused and looked down at her. "What makes you say that?"

Sarah didn't look up at him, just cuddled closer. "Heard Uncle Clark when he stopped by earlier."

Bruce couldn't help but roll his eyes. Maybe she _was_ a little better, if she was reverting to her old sneaky habit of eavesdropping.

"We haven't found the bad person yet," he admitted, seeing there was no point in lying to her. "But we're going to keep looking, and I'm also going to add more security to the manor, so that it'll be safer."

"Okay, Daddy," Sarah replied. She was silent for a moment, and then looked up at him. "Didn't the Riddler break out of Arkham yesterday? Found him yet?"

At four fifty-seven am, Bruce got back to the Cave feeling rather satisfied—the Riddler was back in Arkham, complete with a broken wrist and a concussion. It had helped work out some of his anger. It wasn't directed at the people who took his children, but at the moment anyone who broke the law was good enough.

He expected to get home, shower and slip into bed and his wife's arms, and maybe, for the first time since recovering the children, sleep well.

He didn't expect to find Sarah still sitting in the chair in front of the computer, updating the logs, wrapped in his spare cape to keep warm.

"You weren't supposed to get up again after I took you to bed, Sarah," he pointed out, coming over.

She ignored his comment, instead turning to him. "Did you sustain any injuries, Daddy?"

"No," he said, "Why?"

"So I can update your logs," she said, turning back to the computer and typing. After a few minutes, she stopped, then turned back to him with a smile. "Done."

"Why are you down here again?"

"I figured this way I could save you some time before you go to bed," she shrugged.

"So this is going to be regular occurrence?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes. I figure it'll stand me in good stead for when you start training me properly-"

"Whoa, stop right there. Sarah, there is no way in hell I'm going to train you to-"

"Why not?" she asked. "Mom's training Nicky."

"That's different."

"Why _else _not—that's not fair."

"How about because your mother and I just got you and Nick back, and there is no way I'm _deliberately _putting you in danger-"

"But isn't that the point?" she asked. "If you trained me, I'd be able to try and defend myself if anything like it were to happen again-"

"Exactly why I'm going to make the manor more secure so that this can't happen again," he replied.

Sarah's face was aghast. "Daddy, you know that you can't account for all the variables, what if someone _does _slip through the cracks?"

He sighed; she had him there. "Well there is no way I'm training you anytime soon," he told her, taking her hand and leading her back upstairs, "like before the age of twenty-one."

"Ten."

He raised an eyebrow. "This isn't a negotiation, Sarah."

"If you don't start training me until twenty-one then I won't be ready to begin patrolling until I'm thirty, and how old was Uncle Dick when you started training him?" she asked shrewdly.

He paused. "...ten."

"And Tim?"

"Eleven," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Then 'twenty-one' is ridiculous!" she protested. "Ten."

"Nineteen."

"Twelve."

"Eighteen. I'm not coming down, Sarah."

"Thirteen."

"_Eighteen_."

They were emerging into the study when she dragged him over to the chessboard instead of the door. "If I can beat you in less than six moves, you start training me at thirteen."

He narrowed his eyes at her, trying to find the catch here. Sarah gazed back innocently. "Fine."

Ten minutes later, Bruce was staring at the chessboard, wondering how the hell she'd managed to do that. She was only one move away from- "Checkmate," she smiled happily.

He was silent for a moment. "We never tell your mother about this."

**TBC**

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**A/N: Review please!**


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